Dangerous Game
by Marine L. Girard
Summary: AU-ish. MelloxOC. Vesni is an 18-year-old girl with amnesia who runs into Mello and helps him with the Kira case. Five years later, what happens when they meet again, but under different cercumstances? Will Vesni get her memories back and find her name?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, this first chapter is exactly why the story is AU-ish. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, then read the damn chapter and you'll figure it out! **

**This story was orginally going to be called "Bastard" but the titles of stories have to be rated G for everyone, so I changed it to "Dangerous Game". Because it was originally going be called "Bastard", each chapter will have the word "bastard" in it, as shown below.**

**Disclaimer: I own absolutely zip, zilch, nada with the exception of Vesni. Now enjoy the damn story!**

Part 1 Lucky Bastard

_"I hear a voice say 'Don't be so blind.' It's telling me all these things that you would probably hide." -Always by Saliva_

The back of the transport truck bounced uncomfortably as it sped up to merge onto the highway. Vesni sat by the door in the back with a gun pointed at a dark-haired Japanese woman, naked except for a white blanket that was given to her before she stripped.

"I honestly do not see why Mello needs you, but if this is his plan, I'll go with it." Vesni frowned at the woman who looked up at her with surprise written on her face.

"You trust Mello?" she asked, disbelief in her voice.

"Fuck no!" Vesni shook her head, her fluffy, bright red pony tail nearly smacking her in the face. "I work with him only because he and I both have a score to settle with your 'God' who calls himself Kira. Working with him doesn't mean that I trust him."

"I see, and what has Kira done to you?" the woman asked, glaring back at Vesni.

The red-head returned the venomous glare the woman was giving her. "No need for you to know, _Lady _Takada."

Kiyomi Takada huffed and ignored the eighteen-year-old girl who was holding her at gunpoint. Vesni was glad for the silence. She hated Takada, hated all the attention she got, hated how she was so vain and smug about the praise she received from the Kira worshipers of the world, hated how lightly she treated using a Death Note to kill someone. Vesni thought Mello should not have given Takada a blanket when he asked her to strip to get rid of the tracking device that she _might_ have had on her clothes.

It was Kira who killed her parents two years prior to Takada's kidnapping. They were killed in a car accident that only Vesni had survived. She had awoken in the hospital with no memory of anything, not the accident, not her childhood, not her parents, not even her real name. The only thing she could remember about her name was that it started with a V. With that knowledge, she traveled around calling herself Vesni. She knew that it was not what she used to be called, but she figured she would start there until she could regain all her memories.

She concluded that it was Kira who had murdered her parents because both of them had been well experienced American conartists. They had avoided Kira for years, and, thinking that they would never be found by the new "God," they decided to take a vacation to Japan, and that is where they were discovered by Kira. She only knew this now because of what the police had told her after she was released from the hospital. Not knowing what she would do or where she would go if she went back to America, she got a dead-end job in Japan and spent almost a year and a half wandering aimlessly until she bumped into Mello. Even at first appearance, she knew she could not trust him, but she had agreed to work with him only because he was after Kira. Her parents were criminals so she found no guilt in becoming one with Mello.

When the blond twenty-year-old had taken Takada away from the NHN building, Vesni had waited in the back of the transport truck until the two had arrived. Once Takada had been stripped of her clothes, Mello had locked both the NHN anchorwoman and Vesni in the back of the truck; the main reason was so Vesni could keep an eye on the woman so she could not try anything that would help her to escape in any way. Vesni did not particularly like the job Mello had given her, but thought it was best to do it because she did not want any of them to die before they caught Kira.

Suddenly, Vesni felt the truck slowing down and veering off in another direction. _Must be getting off the highway, _she thought. She was right. The truck stopped for a short period of time, as if at a stop light, then turned a corner, then another and almost immediately came to a stop under some shaded area. Takada took the opportunity of the truck being off to try and work the plan she had been calculating in her head on the drive there. Vesni noticed it almost right away and cocked a bullet into place and then point the pistol she was holding at Takada's head.

"Hey! What's that?" She stood up and walked over to the Japanese woman and pulled the blanket back to reveal a piece of lined paper and a pencil. Vensi yanked it out of the anchorwoman's hands and shook it in front of her face. "Trying to kill us, huh? Well, I got news for you. That's not going to happen anytime soon." She stuffed both the pencil and the piece of the Death Note in a pocket of her black cargo pants. "And you couldn't have killed me with that anyway, considering 'Vesni' is not even my real name." Takada looked up at the red-head with and odd expression. "I don't even know my real name." Vesni turned around and banged on the door of the truck. "Mello, open the fucking door and get me out of here!" There was a loud click and the door to the back of the truck opened to reveal the scarred face of the blonde known as Mello.

Shoving the gun into another pocket of her cargo pants, Vesni jumped down from the back of the truck and shoved the piece of Death Note in Mello's face. "What's this?" he asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Are you happy now? I just saved your life." The twenty-year-old took the paper from the red-head and stared at it after shutting and locking the truck door. "She was about to write your name down on that. I caught her just as she was pulling it out to write."

Mello turned and walked into the building that he had parked the truck in. "Good work, Vesni." He waved a hand, indicating for her to follow him. "Come with me."

The red-head glared at his back. No thank you? No "I trust you now"? Was it any wonder why she did not like him? Huffing angrily, she gave in and followed behind the blonde. He led her into a small, dimly lit room with a desk and a few papers scattered about. It was rather dusty and cobwebs littered the walls. The place had obviously not been used in years.

Shutting the old, rotted, wooden door after her, Vesni crossed her arms angrily and glared at Mello who had poured himself over the papers that were scattered across the desk. "So now what are you going to do with her?" she asked, a bit peeved.

"Pump answers out of her, use her as bait, get a ransom, then kill her," he answered quickly without looking up from the papers.

"That's it?" Vesni leaned against a spider web-covered wall, took out her gun and began checking the rounds. Mello nodded and said nothing. "Who's going to kill her?" she asked. She had never killed anyone before but did not care if she started now. Her parents that she could not remember had murdered before and got away with it, so when was it her turn? She pulled out the magazine, checked it, and then shoved it back into the handle of the pistol with a loud click.

Mello looked up from the papers he had been studying. "Doesn't matter; as long as she dies, I don't care." The red-head took the safety off her gun and held it up for Mello to look at.

"I'll do it," she said with no emotion. The scarred blonde stared at her for a moment, and then nodded.

"Very well, but let me talk to her first." Putting the safety back on the pistol, Vesni nodded once and placed the gun back in her pocket. The smell in the room seemed to change all of a sudden from dusty to smoky. She sniffed the air then turned back to the wooden door. She studied the cracks between the frame and the door and noticed a small, red glow and a bit of smoke come from underneath it. Curious, Vesni opened the door and peeked out at the truck that they had left alone.

"Holy shit!" Mello glanced up at her back when he heard her exclamation. "Mello, we have to leave here _now_!" She turned back around, grabbed the blonde's arm, and pulled him to his feet, dragging him out of the tiny room.

"Vesni, let go of me!" Mello retched his arm free of her grasp and followed her out of the room. "What's going on?"

The red-head in question grabbed his unkempt hair and forced his face in the direction of the transport truck. The whole thing was ablaze; the fire spreading quickly and was only feet away from the gas tank. The eighteen-year-old released Mello's hair and began running out of the building. "That's what's going on, now run!"

The smoke began to spread and sting Vesni's eyes. She could just make out the exit of the busted building. If only she could get out in time before the fire reached the gas tank of the truck and explode. Her eyes stung, her throat stung, the smoke filled in every gap of the building, impairing her breathing; but she was not about to give up. Not just yet.

Suddenly, there was a deafening bang and the whole building exploded. Vesni was thrown forward but did not feel the heat of the fire on her back, instead she felt the heat of a body and two strong arms wrap themselves around her waist. The young red-head covered her face to protect it from the impact of her colliding with the ground. Her hands were scraped up, as were her forearms, but other than that, she was fine. Shards of stone and wood from the building flew past her but did not touch her. The body that had grabbed her protected her from the fire as well as the debris that could harm her.

Vesni waited a few minutes for the dust and debris to die down before she opened her eyes. Removing her arms from in front of her face, she moved out from underneath the body that had protected her and stood up, looking at the now burning building.

"Fuck, how the hell did that happen?" She sighed; just a moment ago, everything was fine and dandy. There was no sign of a fire or even of a fire beginning to happen. How did the truck suddenly catch fire and explode? A quiet grunting noise came from near Vesni's feet and she looked down to see a burned and bleeding Mello attempting to stand. It had been he who had protected her from the blast. The explosion had burned through his leather vest to his back, leaving a smoldering mess of blistered skin and burned flesh, complete with bits of debris that had embedded themselves into the wound. Why Mello risked that to protect Vesni was beyond her.

"Must have been Kira," he said through gritted teeth.

Vesni stared at him. "Why and how would Kira explode a transport truck?" she asked, obviously confused.

"He used Takada," he answered, cringing from pain and falling down on his hands and knees. "She must have called him...and...discovering that she was captured...must have had her burn herself and everything around her...so we couldn't get anything out of her." Mello gripped his burned arm with his free hand. "Damn! The bastard got us!"

Vesni watched him as he sprawled out on the ground in pain. "Well don't just stand there, you useless bitch! Do something!" Mello screamed at her. She looked at him for a minute, studying his wounds, before pulling off her white tank top and ripped it up, wrapping his bleeding back and arm with it. She grabbed his good arm and slung it over her shoulder; standing up, she helped him to his feet and they began to stagger off down the dirt road.

Mello looked at Vesni, at her black bra that was all that covered her after she had wrapped his injuries. "I didn't know you looked so good without a shirt on, Vesni," he said with a weak voice. The loss of blood had left his body weak and frail.

She glared at him. "You better watch it buddy, or I'll drop you here and leave you to die." She was completely serious and Mello knew it. Not wanting to die, he decided on a change of subject.

"So, where are we going?" he asked.

"To a cottage I rented out before we set out to kidnap Takada." She shifted Mello's weight on her shoulder and continued. "I thought it would be best if we had a safe house to go to if the cops came to that little busted-out building you parked the truck in."

Mello sighed. "Good thinking, Vesni."

The red-head rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Mello. I'm surprised that you didn't think of that." He just grunted and closed his eyes. She was not at all surprised when she felt him go limp and her load was increased. The man had lost too much blood to stay conscious. Letting out a large sigh, she shifted Mello's weight once again and trudged down the dirt road towards their new home for the next few weeks.

--

Vesni turned the handle of the faucet in the cottage kitchen and let the water run until it was piping hot. Taking out a big, plastic bowl from a high cabinet, she dumped in some liquid hand soap and then filled it with the hot water. She grabbed a small wash towel, dumped it in the water, and walked up the stairs, hot water bowl in hand, to the second story of the cottage that consisted of only one bedroom and a bathroom. It was time to clean Mello's wounds again. The man had been unconscious for three days and he showed no sign of waking any time soon.

Vesni had no idea why she still stayed and took care of the scarred blonde. She hated him, that much was clear, but yet she still had stolen equipment from a nearby hospital just to save him. Maybe she did it because he was the only thing that gave her a sense of stability in her life. His purpose fueled her purpose. That fact alone made her want to kill him.

Opening the door to the bedroom, she walked up to the bed where he lay and set the bowl down on the nightstand next to the bed. Removing the sheets, she slowly and carefully rolled him over on his stomach and began to cut the gauze off his bare skin with a four-inch-long knife that she kept strapped to the back of her belt at all times. Once removed, she threw the gauze in a trash can that she had pulled next to her and rung out the wash towel over the bowl. Taking the damp cloth, Vesni gently moved it over Mello's ugly and puss-covered back. The wound sizzled slightly when it touched the hot water but almost immediately stopped as she softly rubbed the large, ugly scab. When the towel was dirtied with the puss and blood that covered his back, she dipped it back in the bowl, rinsed it out, and then began to clean the wound again. She repeated this process several times before she finished his back and moved on to his arm.

When Vesni was rinsing out the hand towel before she started on his arm, Mello's eyes fluttered open slowly and stared at her. She did not notice he was awake until he spoke to her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Vesni jumped in surprise and dropped the towel she had been ringing out in the hot water. "Aaah!" she cried out; partly because the twenty-year-old had startled her and partly because the hot water had splashed onto her bare skin. "Mello, you're awake!"

He sighed. "Yes, I'm awake. Now I ask again, what are you doing?" His voice was hard and stern. It was obvious he wanted an answer out of her right away.

"I'm cleaning your wound, what does it look like I'm doing?" Vesni was not troubled by his tone for one second. She was used to people talking to her that way and nothing this gimp could dish out was going to change that.

His eyes narrowed. "Why?"

Vesni crossed her arms and returned his glare. "What? Would you rather me leave you here by yourself and have you die? You're one lucky bastard to have survived the Death Note _and _the explosion. It's a good thing I was there otherwise you would definitely be dead right now."

Mello grunted in surrender and tried to lift himself off his stomach so that he could sit up properly but the red-head shoved his head back into the pillow and held him down. Having just woken up from a three-day coma, he was in no condition to resist her forcing him back onto the bed.

"What the hell, woman!" he yelled into the pillow.

"I'm not done with you yet," she began. "Once I finish cleaning the puss and blood off your arm, I'll put some ointment on and wrap you up in some fresh gauze. Then you may sit up."

The blonde growled his disagreement but gave up and let her finish before he sat up. As soon as she tied off the gauze, he quickly picked himself up, swung his legs out of the bed and let his bare feet rest on the hard, wooden floor. He placed his hands on his knees and glared at Vesni. His scar made him look angrier than he really was.

"Why did you help me?" he asked with malice in his voice.

The red-head returned Mello's glare. "I don't know. I just did. You got a problem with living or something? If you wanted to die, you should have just told me to leave you alone and I would have."

"How long have I been unconscious?" Seeing that his previous inquiry would be getting him nowhere, he decided to go down a different path.

Vesni gathered all the equipment she had not used and placed them back in the duffle bag she had used to smuggle the first-aid equipment out of the hospital. "Almost three days, no more than that." She closed the zipper and tossed the bag next to the bed.

"Damn!" Mello cried out, making Vesni jump. "Near probably caught Kira by now. Fuck, fuck, fuck!" The room was silent for a few minutes as Vesni let the new information sink in then was startled again when the scarred blonde suddenly yelled in anger. "Damn you Near, you won again!" He buried his face in his hands and it was quiet once again in the small room.

Vesni had no idea what Mello meant by Near winning again, but she decided not to press the matter. Quietly, she stood up and turned to leave the room, leaving Mello alone to think about everything that had just been said. She did not tell him everything. She purposely left out the fact that Near had called the blonde's phone just the other day to give Mello the news. He had known the twenty-year-old was not dead and got a first-hand story as to why when Vesni answered the phone. Near had told her everything that had happened at the Yellow Box Warehouse and the red-head could not bring herself to tell Mello that it was Light Yagami who was Kira; the very man who had killed L and taken over for the great detective right after, fooling everyone for several years.

Frankly, Vesni would have loved to see Mello flip his lid over the information, but after seeing the man completely break down from finding out that Near had beaten him to the punch once again, she could not get the words out of her mouth. Something about seeing the scarred blonde so pathetic and sad created a brick wall in her mouth, restricting the words from leaving.

At the door, Vesni stopped and looked back at Mello and sighed. The state of him was an odd sight indeed. She felt like she had to say something, but did not know what. Deciding to leave it be, she quietly slipped out of the room and shut the door.

**A,N: Yeah, that's right, they hate eachothers' guts. I just thought I'd try and get that across as best I could. If I failed at that, please let me know. Hell, if I failed at anything in this story, let me know anyway.**

**Review!! If you don't, I'll kill your sorry ass!!**

**Thank You!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I know that this one is a little short but it is kinda hard to drag out an argument, so this is what you get. Get over it.**

Part 2 Ungrateful Bastard

_"Crowned hopless, the article read 'Living Wasteland.'" -Wasteland by 10 years_

Six days later, Vesni and Mello still resided in the small cottage. Seeing as there was only one bedroom and one bed, Vesni slept downstairs on the couch while Mello occupied the bed upstairs. The red-head thought that he needed it more than she did because he was still recovering from his injuries the explosion had caused. The wound had finally shown signs of scabbing and the amount of puss it produced had died down. Unfortunately, Mello had a nasty habit of scratching at the gauze Vesni had put on him. Several times she smacked him upside the head for it and each time, he had hit her right back. Every time he hit her, she just left him saying, "Fine, if you want it to never heal, then be my guest." After which she just stalked off and left Mello to his scratching.

In a sense, she was right. Twice, when Mello had scratched, the wound opened up again and Vesni had to re-bandage it. Every time, without fail, she would scold him but he would just roll his eyes and wave her off.

Vesni walked up the stairs to Mello's bedroom with a tray of food for the blonde. She had just finished making a healthy dinner for the two of them and was on her way to give him his share. Opening the door, she walked in to see Mello picking at his bandages once again. She nearly dropped the tray of food from anger.

"Mello!" she yelled as she walked up to him and set the tray on the bed next to him. "When will you stop messing with that? You need to stop or it will never heal!"

He glared at her but lowered his hand from his shoulder anyway. "Why are you doing this?" he asked her, his voice stern.

Vesni put her hands on her hips. "So you don't die, that's why!" she screeched. "Though it is obvious that you aren't going to die now, I'm just making sure that you get fully recovered." The next words she muttered under her breath. "Though you won't fully recover if you keep picking at your bandages."

Mello narrowed his eyes at her mutterings but let it go and turned to glare at the food she gave him. "You hate me, so I ask again, why are you doing this?"

Vesni finally snapped. "Why do you keep asking me this!?" she screamed. "Do I need a reason to help someone in need of it? The truth is, I don't know why I'm helping you but I am so tired of you not being grateful about it! So why don't you just shut up and take your medicine!"

Mello glared at her but kept quiet. Something was bothering him, that much was clear. He had been like that for the past six days. Just when Vesni was about to ask what it was that was eating him, he out right said it.

"Matt's dead."

Vesni's mouth dropped open. "What!" She could not believe it. How could Matt, her one and only friend, be dead? If she could have chosen who lived and who died, she would have chosen Matt to live and Mello to die. But, Matt dead, she just could not believe it. Just the week before, before the Takada incident, he seemed so alive, like nothing could take him down. She recalled how opposed she was to him following Mello in the plan; she did not want him to leave.

_"Matt, what are you doing?" Vesni yelled from the sitting room of the run-down apartment they had rented out in Japan. She emerged in the hallway in front of the front door to see Matt about to walk out._

_He stopped and turned to her, a small smile on his face. "I'm going to get ready for the job Mello asked me to do. I'll be back tonight. Right now, you have your own job to prepare for." He turned to leave when Vesni grabbed his striped sleeve and stopped him._

_"What the fuck are you talking about, Matt?" she asked, not letting him go until he gave her an answer. _

_He sighed. "You're going with Mello. He has a special job for you to do." _

_Vesni frowned. "Why do you trust Mello so much, Matt?" She knew that Matt trusted Mello more than anyone and would follow him anywhere. That was the only thing that annoyed the eighteen-year-old about the gamer. Mello was smart, yes; Mello knew what he was doing, yes, but something about him came off to Vesni as manipulative; he would do anything to anyone just to get his way. Because of this, Vesni did not trust him, and vowed she never would. _

_Matt turned back around and faced Vesni. "I've known Mello for most of my life. We've been best friends for that whole time." He sighed again. "You don't know him like I do, Vesni. He and I have been through a lot together, that is why I trust him. I hope someday you'll understand that." _

_The teenaged red-headed girl growled. "That may be true, but something about this new plan of his makes me uneasy. I have a bad feeling about it." She paused to take Matt's gloved hands in hers. "Whatever happens, please be careful. Please, think before you act." She now looked straight in front of her into Matt's eyes that were covered by the orange-tinted goggles he always wore. _

_He smiled at her, she was only an inch taller than him, but he did not have to look up to see right into her eyes. Releasing his hands from hers, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and drew her close to him. "I'll be fine" he whispered in her ear. "And I will take your advice into consideration when the situation calls for it." _

_Vesni felt tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes, but she was not about to cry. Now was not the time for it. She sniffled and wrapped her arms around Matt and squeezed, not wanting to let him go. "Be very careful," she reminded him._

_He nodded. "I will."_

_"Well isn't that sweet," an annoyed voice dripping with sarcasm said from behind Vesni. Frowning, she let go of Matt and turned around to see Mello, a half-eaten bar of chocolate in his hand, leaning against the wall glaring at the two. _

_Vesni returned his glare and growled at him. "Shut up, ass; if any one of us dies on this mission, I'm blaming you." The blonde just rolled his eyes and took another insanely large bite out of his chocolate bar._

_"Shouldn't you be heading out, Matt?" he said, his eyes narrowing at his old friend. _

_The goggled red-head nodded. "Yes, I was just about to when-."_

_"When Vesni stopped you," Mello finished. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just get out of here already." Matt did as his friend told him and left, slamming the door on his way out. Vesni heard him say something along the lines of "I'll call you when I'm ready," before he left the apartment._

_That was the last time she saw him; would ever see him._

The red-head's eyes were wide with shock. She looked down at Mello who had been sitting on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his knees and his head hung low. His hair obscured his face but Vesni knew that his look was one of remorse.

A single tear slid down the red-head's cheek, the only thing she could give for Matt. She had never really cried after her car accident that had wiped her memory. Sure, she had been sad or angry and wanted to cry, but the tears never came, she either held them back or they refused to crawl past her eyes.

"It's all my fault." Vesni blinked back a second tear and narrowed her eyes at Mello.

"You're damn right it's your fault!" she screamed. Mello's head shot up and he looked at Vesni with surprise. "If it weren't for you and your stupid and reckless ideas, Matt would still be alive! You're the one who sent him on that suicide mission! Why didn't you realize how dangerous your fucking plan was? Why, even you would be dead if it weren't for me!"

"You didn't have to save my life, yet you did," Mello began. "Matt also had a choice. He had a choice from the very beginning. Yet he chose to follow me and he did so without a single complaint." He was trying to defend himself but Vesni was not buying it.

"And you took it for granted!" She was almost screaming in his face at this point. "The entire time, the whole time Matt and I worked for you, you used us. You didn't care that we were people too, we were just toys for you to solve the puzzle!"

Mello's eyes widened when he heard what she was saying. The last sentence she said triggered a memory, something he had said to an old rival. "You sound like you're complaining to Near," he said angrily.

"Yeah?" she said, raising her eyebrow. She knew Mello hated it when she did that. "Good, because I'm shooting your words right back at you."

Mello looked up at her, surprised. "You…know about that?" he asked.

"Yeah, I know about it, Near called while you were unconscious and told me everything." She paused for a bit to see Mello's reaction, which was not pretty. "I also got a bit of information out of Halle, and she wishes you well by the way."

Mello's eyes were almost as big as dinner plates by the time she finished talking. Vesni wanted to smile, but suppressed it and kept her angry demeanor. "How dare you…" Mello hissed.

"How dare I?" She sounded appalled. "How dare _I_? What about you, you ungrateful bastard! You don't like being used to further other people's plans and yet you do exactly that to other people. You did that to me and Matt. To _Matt _of all people, your best friend, the one person who trusted you fully. How could you do that to him?" Vesni balled her hands into fists and they began to shake with anger. Raising her arm, she punched Mello as hard as she could square in the jaw. The blonde was stunned that she had actually hit him with all her might. He fell back onto the bed and grabbed his jaw where a big black bruise was sure to show up in a few days time. Vesni was seething with anger, her face contorted with rage as she continued to scream at the scarred blonde in front of her. "You're nothing more than a hypocrite! You only care about yourself! I was right to not trust you, you low-life, two-timing, piece of shit!"

Mello glared daggers at the red-head. "Don't think that I don't regret getting Matt killed." Vesni blinked. _What did he just say? _"I never meant for Matt to die, though he said he was prepared for it."

Something inside Vesni was itching to escape. She was still as angry as ever with Mello that she just had to direct that at something. Gritting her teeth, she turned and punched the wall right next to her, making Mello jump. "Oh please, you expect me to believe that?" she said as she rubbed her knuckles and studied the cracks she made in the wall. "I have a feeling that you knew Matt would die. You had a feeling that you, yourself, would die as well but did not expect me jump in there and save the day, didn't you? That's why you shielded me from the explosion, you _wanted _to die, but in a way that seemed like an accident." Vesni picked up the tray with the dinner she had made, stared at it for a few seconds, and then suddenly tossed it at the blonde on the bed. "Here's your dinner you good-for-nothing little whelp!" The chicken she had barbequed splattered in Mello's face, the vegetables covered his bandages, and the rice flew over his shoulders and spread out over the bed. The rest of the area around the blonde became sopping wet from the juice she had poured. The red-head stopped at the door before leaving. "I honestly don't see how you can call yourself a man." That said, she turned and left the room to a very angry and seething Mello.

Vesni stormed back down the stairs. _How could he do that? _she thought bitterly. _How could he betray his one and only friend? And _my _friend, too! Now I'm stuck with this bastard until he's healed. God dammit! If he dies sometime soon, I'll be jumping for joy. _

Livid, she grabbed her own dinner, cut herself a piece of chicken, and angrily stuffed it in her mouth. "I swear, one of these days, one of us is going to be the death of the other."

**A/N: That's right, Matt's dead...or is he? Read my MattxOC and you can think of your own conclusion. I really don't care. **

**Yes, she hates him and she still stayed and took care of him.**

**Review! I'll break or hyperextend your arm or knee if you don't. Trust me, I know how and I will.**

**Oh yeah, and go read my sister's story, because it is funny and cool. The name of her story is "We All Know Conspiracies Dumb" and it is a Treasure Planet JimxOC. It is written by FoxFire Pheonix. GO! READ! NOW!!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: A BIT OF LEMON AHEAD! So be aware of that. If you don't like how it is written (because I suck at lemons), you'll have to get over it. I only wrote it because I wanted to get some experience in writing something that I'm uncomfortable with (If you crazy fangirls think that it is written for you, go ahead and think that, I really don't care).**

**This chapter, heck, this whole story itself reminds me of the song Cold (But I'm Still Here) by Evan's Blue. If you don't know what that is, look it up on youtube or look up the lyrics. It's a really good song if you like rock/metal music. In fact, I'm listening to it right now over and over again because it is SOOOOO AWESOME!!**

Part 3 Seductive Bastard

_"I feel like you don't want me around. I guess I'll pack all my things. I guess I'll see you around." -Always by Saliva_

Three weeks later, Vesni was cleaning out the kitchen getting ready to leave the cottage she had rented. Mello's wound had finally healed over and turned into one giant, ugly scar. She had not expected to stay at the cottage as long as they did but that was only because of Mello's odd desire to die. If he wanted to die that bad, he should have just asked Vesni to kill him. She would be all too happy to oblige.

The eighteen-year-old opened the pantry and began to empty it of all the food and spices she had stored in there. She was cleaning out the mostly empty boxes of cereal when something caught her eye, a box of chocolate bars. Curious as to how it got there, Vesni picked it up and noticed that it had already been opened.

"That's strange; I could have sworn that I didn't buy thi-." She paused, sudden realization coming to her. Frowning, she narrowed her eyes and growled. "Oh, that bastard." Tossing the box of chocolate bars in the trash, she turned around and stormed up the stairs. "He knows that I don't allow junk food, yet somehow, he always manages to get the stuff in here. I swear, this time I'll kill him." Arriving at the door to the bedroom, she decided she would go about her argument with a calm demeanor. Quietly, she opened the door and saw the top of Mello's head behind to bed. He must have been sitting on the floor and leaning against the bed.

Vesni did not bother to shut the door but walked up to the bed and crawled on top of it, lying down on her stomach just above the blonde's head. She was surprised that he did not turn around and angrily ask what she was doing there, but shrugged it off when she noticed a bunch of wrappers scattered on the floor and a just-opened chocolate bar in Mello's hand. _He's still eating them? That idiot, doesn't he know that all that chocolate is bad for you? _Quickly, Vesni reached down, plucked the chocolate bar from his hand, and wrapped it back up again. Mello paused for a moment, taking in what just happened before whipping around and glaring at the red-head with anger and confusion written on his face.

"Why'd you take my chocolate?" he growled. Vesni dangled the bar in front of the blonde's face.

"You mean this?" she said in a teasing voice. The blonde tried to grab it back but she yanked it back just in time and he missed. "I took it because it seems like it's all you ever eat. Too much of this stuff could either give you diabetes of make you fat, or both. It's not healthy." Getting off the bed, she crunched up the bar and tossed it into the garbage can next to the open door. "I honestly don't know how you got it here without my knowing."

Mello stood up and stalked over to her, standing only a few centimeters in front of her and glaring, his scar making him look positively ghastly. "Not healthy?" he asked. Vesni was not at all startled by his actions. After about a month and a half of dealing with him, she was used to it. She glared right back at him and nodded.

"Yeah, idiot, not healthy." She paused for a few seconds when she noticed Mello's eye twitch. "Chocolate can't be the only thing you eat."

The twenty-year-old knitted his eyebrows together into an ugly frown. "Eating chocolate isn't the only thing I do that's 'not healthy,'" he said, his voice on the brink of yelling. "You could say that joining the mafia, chasing after Kira, and getting blown up twice is unhealthy as well." Vesni had to admit, those three things were not necessarily healthy. In fact, they had a higher death rate than chocolate eating, but that was beside the point. The point was that Vesni the health nut wanted to know how Mello the chocoholic had snuck candy past her.

"That is a true statement, but it's not the point that I'm trying to get across."

The scarred blonde shook his head and took a step closer to Vesni, making the red-head step back closer to the wall. The scowl he wore made him look positively frightening. "I think it's right up there next to your point, therefore it is relevant."

Vesni finally snapped. "Oh, I can't believe you!" she cried, shoving him back away from her. "You always take my words and twist them around to fit you better! You manipulative, _fucking_ bastard! Maybe I should have gone and worked with Near instead. At least I would have been more appreciated there than with you!" Mello narrowed his eyes at the sound of Near's name. "Even that _kid _is better than you, an _adult_! He's smarter than you, too. You can't even find _Kira _without his he-!" Mello had heard enough. As soon as she started ranting on about how Near was better than him, he had heard enough. As quick as a blur, he grabbed Vesni's throat and squeezed.

The teenager gasped when her sentence was cut off and her airway was restricted. She gripped his wrist and gapped her mouth open like a fish out of water, attempting to breathe. Her eyes widened as she watched Mello's face contort worse than it had ever been. So angry he was that he no longer seemed human. "Don't you _ever_ say that in front of me again!" His voice was dripping with malice, his hands shaking with rage. He only had to squeeze a little more and Vesni would be lying dead on the floor.

Despite the fact that she could barely breathe, Vesni was not going to give in to the maniac poised to kill her. She glared at him, every bit as angry as he was. How dare he try and strangle her? How dare he get angry over some simple thing she said? What right did he have to command her like that? Raising her hands up, she slammed them down on the inside of his elbow, making him drop his hand from her neck and clutch his arm in slight pain.

"You…" she said, panting and rubbing her throat. "Are an asshole." She paused to catch her breath before she trudged ahead once again. "Acting like that, you'll never be better than Near. You always let your emotions get the better of you, that's why you lose!"

"I have had it with you, woman!" Mello screamed. He threw himself at her, grabbed her wrists, and slammed her up against the wall. Vesni gasped from surprise, but otherwise kept her cool. The angry blonde pushed his body up against hers, successfully pinning her to the wall. "Why can't you just shut up for once!"

They glared at each other, their faces only millimeters away from the other. "Because there is so much I have to say to you, twit!" Vesni tried moving her arms but they were securely fastened to the wall above her head by Mello's hands. "Now, do you mind letting me go? I'm losing circulation in my fingers." The young red-head's heart began to beat faster as she felt the warm breath of Mello's small chuckle on her skin.

"What makes you think I'll let you go, you bitch? I'm not releasing you until I feel that you've been punished enough." That said, he forced their lips together. Vesni's eyes opened wide and she tried to shove him off of her but Mello was much stronger than her and he only forced her back against the wall. His tongue parted her lips and he licked at the inside of her mouth. His hand found its way to the back of her pants, gripped the handle of her knife and pulled it out of its sheath. She squeezed her eyes shut when she felt the cold steel touch the bare skin of her side and slide up her skin. She let out a gasp when Mello pulled the knife back and her clothes, torn and shredded, fell to the floor. He did the same thing to her pants and soon enough, Vesni stood between Mello and the wall with absolutely no clothes on at all.

The twenty-year-old let the teenager go and stared at her. She just stood in front of him, shaking from surprise and eyes wide from shock. Vesni did not know what to make of the situation. He hated her down to her very toenails and yet, what was he doing?

Mello frowned and glared at the naked girl in front of him. The fact that she was not moving angered him. Should she not be screaming rape and running out the door by now? "Well, what now?" he hissed irritably.

She stared at him blankly. "You choose. You _are_ the one who stripped me naked." Vesni had no idea why she said what she did but only knew what came out of her mouth, whether it were words or Mello, that was all she knew.

Mello's frown grew more sinister at the sound of her words, and he grabbed her arm roughly, swung her around him and threw her on the bed. She scrambled back to the far side of the bed near the pillows and turned around to see Mello taking off his clothes. _What is he doing?_ She could not figure out why she thought that. She knew what he was doing; she just did not want it to happen. His clothes now gone except for the red rosary that he always wore, he crawled onto the bed and pinned Vesni to the mattress.

The teenaged red-head felt the beads of his rosary on her chest and knew exactly what he was going to do. She wanted to cry out in rage but their lips came together once again, effectively keeping her quiet. She tried to struggle against him, but came up the weaker of the two once again. As soon as her struggling came to a minimum, Mello removed his lips from hers and began to kiss down her neck. He touched her in all the right places to make her succumb to his will and not resist him.

Vesni gasped when his mouth found its way to her breast and covered her nipple. She fought with herself the whole time. She was stuck between wanting him to do what he did and wanting him to stop so she could kill his raping ass. She knew that she did not want him to do that, but it felt so good that she could not help but let him have his way.

The red-head felt him near her opening but could not stop him from entering. His tongue lapped at her ear and she could not help but let out a moan when he touched her between the thighs. His hands groped her everywhere and her fingers entangled themselves in his long blond hair. She held him close to her and breathed heavily when their bodies collided in a mixed mass of excitement and hatred.

The early evening breeze blew in through the open window and brushed against their skin, cooling them off slightly from the cool air's contact with their sweat combined with bodily fluids and saliva. Vesni could feel his lengthy organ against the inside of her thigh and knew what was coming next. Her insides throbbed from anticipation and impatience. Mello shoved her legs apart and she gasped from slight pain when she felt her groin muscles get pulled a little further than they were supposed to. He positioned himself right in front of her opening and almost immediately thrust in. Vesni gripped his scarred back as if it were her lifeline. Her fingers dug into his skin and she almost cried out from the pain of having him inside her. It felt good and yet hurt terribly at the same time. He ignored her findernails in his just-healed skin and pushed himself in further. The teenager let out a small gasp when she felt his fluids empty inside her. It was almost over, and yet she was…disappointed? Strange, just when it began, she wanted nothing to do with it, but now she wanted more?

Mello removed the lengthy organ of his from Vesni's body and she wrapped her arms around his back, drawing him closer to her and kissing his lips once again. She hated the fact that she wanted more of Mello, the one man that she hated more than Kira himself. It felt so good to have him touch her in places she would not let even Matt touch her, but she hated it. She hated how he was free to have his way with her when she clearly did not want it, hated how she was weaker than him and was unable to fend him off when she wanted to, hated how good he made her feel inside and out, and hated how he left her wanting more than when they started. She had not expected her first time to be with someone she absolutely despised, but it was good, so she took what she got.

--

Vesni lay on her stomach, naked, on one side of the bed. She and Mello had not even bothered to get under the covers during their last session so the neat quilt that had covered the bed was a mess and covered with human fluids.

The large, sliding-glass door that led to a balcony that she and Mello had never used was open and the cool, evening breeze blew into the room and lightly kissed Vesni's bare back. She shivered slightly from the sudden cold, but otherwise was motionless. Her red hair was pulled to the side of her head which was turned to look at the naked man sitting on the other side of the bed. Vesni still throbbed from his touch but that session was done and another probably was not coming.

Mello sat with one knee to his chest and the other leg hanging off the side of the bed. His arm rested on his knee and he hung his head, his hair covering anything of his face that could be shown. Vesni studied him and thought that he looked sad.

"Mello." He looked up and turned to look in her direction. "Was…" She paused. "Was that your first time?" It was a simple question and yet it seemed like she was impeding on his private life.

He nodded once and went back to staring at the quilt he sat on.

"Do…do you want to do it again?" There it was, the one question she dreaded asking because she was afraid of the answer. To her immense surprise, he looked at her again and smiled a seductive smile.

"Sure, why the fuck not?" He reached over to her, grabbed her arm farthest away from him, and rolled her over onto her back. He crawled on top of her and bent down to talk into her ear. "It might be a lot like the first time, though."

Vesni shrugged. "Eh, just do your best to spice it up if you can." That said, the two got down to business. She could not believe she was asking him to go again. What was wrong with her?

The second session ended up being a bit different from the first. This time, Vesni ended up sucking on his lengthy organ and he licked between her thighs. They continued until well into the night and around two in the morning, they stopped when Vesni began to grow sleepy and a few minutes later, fell asleep on top of Mello's chest. He sighed, picked her up, threw back the sheets and placed her comfortably in the bed. He then grabbed his clothes, threw them on, and glanced at Vesni one last time.

"It has been interesting, but I have to go now," he said with no emotion. He then turned and left the room. "See you later, little slut."

--

The young red-head awoke to the sun shining through the window and warming her face. She drowsily opened her eyes and sat up, rubbing the sleep from them. Vesni glanced at the clock on the bedside table. "Noon! Holy crap, I said we'd be out of the house by ten! Shit, shit, shit!" She jumped out of bead and grabbed her clothes off the floor and tossed them in the trash and threw what was fixable into a suit case. "Mello!" she called out. "Get your ass moving, we need to pack up." When no answer came, she turned back to the bed only to notice that it was empty. "Mello?"

He was not there. Vesni scanned the room for any sign of him, but found nothing. It was not until her third time looking around did she notice a note and a chocolate bar on the bedside table next to the clock. _That's funny, _she thought. _I didn't notice it before. _Walking over to the table, she picked up the letter, opened it and read it over.

_Vesni,_

_I saw the box of chocolates in the trash, so it took them out. Those were mine, you bitch! Anyway, there were two bars left and I figured I'd give one to you, so eat the damn thing! It's not going to kill you. _

_I left early this morning, in case you haven't figured it out (you probably haven't. In fact, it probably took you forever to find this fucking letter). Sorry, but I wasn't going to stick around much longer anyway. I was planning on leaving yesterday, but things came up and my plans changed a bit. _

_Have fun paying the rent! See you later, little slut._

_Mello_

Vesni crumpled the letter up in her hand from anger. "That _fucking _bastard!" she screamed. "If I ever see him again, I'm going to _kill _him!" She tossed the letter in the trash and stood up, heading for the shower. She turned the water on and waited for it to get hot before stepping in. She stood under the warm water for a few minutes, not doing anything until she finally snapped. She dropped to her knees and slammed her fists down on the ceramic shower floor. The red-head screamed in frustration and continued to slam her fists on the floor. She was disgusted with Mello, disgusted with herself. How could she do what she did unwillingly? How could she allow it to happen?

The hot water from the showerhead splashed over her head, making her hair sopping wet and water ran down her face and back. She clenched her fists so tight that blood trickled out onto the shower floor and flowed with the water past Vesni and disappeared down the drain. _What have I done, _was all she could think for quite some time and she could not move from her crouched position on the floor of the shower until the water grew cold.

**A/N: Yeah they STILL hate each other. What was going through Mello's mind when he seduced her is beyond me. We may never find out. **

**Next chapter we will be skipping ahead five years like it says in the summary so don't get discouraged.**

**(Grabs reader by the shirt collar and picks them up off the ground) Only ONE review for the last chapter!? What the hell!? REVIEW GOD DAMMIT!! If you don't I will be forced to hurt you in places you never knew you could get hurt (or HAD for that matter)!!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Yeah, okay, I've noticed that most of the OC's for the Wammy Boys were also from The Wammy's House. Personally, that bugs me so I make my Wammy Boy OC's NOT from the Wammy's House. Who knows, they COULD meet someone outside of the orphanage. Their girlfriends are not restricted to who they grew up with you know. **

**Hooray! Five years later! No more lemons for a while now. There's only going to be one more anyway, so...bleh. Enjoy the chapter!!**

Part 4 Vanishing Bastard

"_You're so endearing, you're so beautiful. Well, I don't look like they do, and I don't love like they do, but I don't hate like they do. Am I ever on your mind?" –Cold (But I'm Still Here) by Evan's Blue_

Vesni walked in her office of the large mansion that she owned from her four years of arms dealing. It had been five years since Mello left her and she still had an overwhelming desire to kill him. Would not any girl feel the same after that?

The red-head wore her long hair down with a single barrette holding back the right side. She sat down at her desk and turned on her laptop. While she waited for it to load, she busied herself with flipping through her planner. She had a dealing that afternoon and, well, that was it. She sighed. Well, at least the day was not too busy. She hated doing dealings, but it was her job and it had to be done. Her computer finally booted up and she clicked on an icon titled Samsung Media Studio5. The music studio opened up and she played the first thing on her playlist, Inside the Fire by Disturbed. As soon as she heard the sinister laugh in the beginning of the song, she minimized the window and opened a few folders and began her work.

She worked for a few hours before one of her servants knocked on the door and reminded her that it was time for her lunch. Pausing her music in the middle of Silver and Cold by AFI, she saved her work and minimized all her windows. Snapping the lid of her laptop shut, she stood up, smoothed out her dark blue, soft silk, spaghetti strapped dress and walked out of her office. She walked into her dining room and sat down at her long, oak table and waited for her servants to place her meal before her. She did not have to wait long. Before she knew it, a large, juicy steak with mashed potatoes, green beans, and a glass of red wine was placed in front of her. Her mouth watered just looking at the delicious meal.

Vesni was never taught proper lady-like manners and she never cared. Ignoring the disgusted look that her maids gave when she ate, she placed her napkin in her lap, hacked off a large chunk of the steak and stuffed the whole thing in her mouth, chewed rather loudly, swallowed, and did the whole process over again.

She finished her meal and headed right back into her office to work some more. She turned her music back on and continued for several more hours before one of her servants knocked on her door once again. Wasteland by 10 Years had just ended and she exited out of her music player. Snapping her computer shut once again, she called for the servant to enter. A young pudgy man with a goatee entered.

"Pardon me, Miss Vesni, but your client is here to see you now," he said rather timidly. Again, she smoothed out her short, blue dress and nodded.

"Let him in then." The servant nodded once and left the room. A minute later, the servant entered again, this time trailed by a tall…person? The client had long, blonde hair and most of their face was covered by the hair and a pair of rather large sunglasses. The person wore all black leather with exception of an old, red jacket worn unzipped.

Having escorted the client into the room, the servant left the office and shut the door, leaving the two to their business. As soon as the door was shut and the servant was out of earshot, the client removed the sunglasses revealing a rather ugly burn scar on the left side of his face. Vesni confirmed that her client was a man; he looked strangely familiar to the red-head but she could not quite place him. Where had she seen him before?

The blonde stared at her for a few minutes, his face in a constant frown studying her body from her sandaled feet to her red hair before he spoke. "You know Vesni, that dress really does not suit you."

The twenty-three-year-old widened her eyes in shock. It was _him! _The bastard came back! "You!" she cried. He just stared at her, his face not changing from the same frown he wore when he entered the room. Quickly, she grabbed her knife, the same one she had five years before, off her desk and pointed it right at the scarred blonde's face. The tip was just centimeters away from the edge of his nose. "Get…out!"

The man spread his hands out in an innocent gesture. "Oh, come on, Vesni," he started. She scowled at him in anger. "We have an appointment for a dealing; you can't just throw me out like this."

"Shut up Mello!" The red-head's hands began to shake from rage. "Get out of my house! Go back to your mob, or gang, or whatever it is you've joined and have them send someone else! Just get out of here before I kill you!"

Mello dropped his hands back to his sides and returned her glare. "If you do that, those who sent me will not be happy. You'll be in a lot of trouble if I die here." He was unperturbed by the fact that the woman held him at knife point.

"Then don't make me do it if that's the case!" She grabbed him by the collar of his red jacket and pulled him close to her face, the knife point against the skin of his neck. The man had grown a lot taller in the past five years. Instead of being the same height as Vesni, he now stood at least three inches taller than her. "I've held a grudge against you for five _fucking _years, so if you don't want to die, I suggest you get out of my sight as soon as possible." Her teeth were clenched as she hissed at him.

The two were silent for a few minutes, both glaring with pure hatred at the other and not moving from the threatening position. After a while, it was Mello who broke the silence. "I'm not leaving until we make the deal."

Vesni's eyes narrowed into slits. "And I'm not making the deal unless you leave and get someone else to take your place." She pressed the knife harder against his neck and a slight trickle of blood seeped from the skin and dripped down his neck. "Otherwise, you die and your mafia doesn't get shit from me."

Mello knew that she was serious. The month and a half they had worked together five years prior had taught him a lot about the red-head in front of him. If a threat of hers seemed serious, then it was serious. She really was going to kill him if he did not leave. He sighed. "Very well," he said, grabbing her fist and releasing her fingers from his red jacket. "I'll get someone else. It's a pain in the ass, but if it pleases _you _then I guess I'll just have to do it." He put a hand to his bleeding neck and wiped the blood off his skin. He glanced at his bloody fingers then rubbed them up against an armchair that sat next to him. Vesni growled at that, but he just ignored her and turned to leave. "Until next time, little bitch."

"There won't _be _a 'next time' asshole!" she screamed at his back. He just waved a hand at her before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him. As soon as she heard the click of the door latch, all the tension in Vesni's body left all at once. The knife she held dropped to the floor and her knees gave out. She slumped to the floor and stared blankly at the wall in front of her. "I…I couldn't…do it…I couldn't…kill him…why?"

--

Mello turned his motorcycle off a block away from Vesni's mansion. The engine died and he could hear the sound of crickets chirping in the bushes on the side of the road. He checked his watch; 11:56 pm. Turning off the headlight, he swung his leg over the seat and walked the rest of the way to the mansion of the arms dealer. Arriving at the front gate, he found it unlocked and helped himself in.

The blonde had no idea why he was at her house again. She had threatened to kill him if she ever saw him again and yet, here he was, sneaking into her house just to see her. The big question was, why did he want to see her? He did not like her, did he? He hated her. Yes, he hated her. So what was he doing?

The controversy inside his head distracted him from what his body was doing and before he knew it, he was standing underneath a small, second story balcony. Looking up at it, he studied the building around it to see if there was any way that he could get up there. On one side there was a storm drain, not much help that would be. It would be slippery as hell against his boots. He glanced at the other side; an ivy vine crawled up a wooden plant suspender. That would have to do. Gripping the first rung of the wood, he hoisted his body up and off the ground. Surprisingly, it was a lot like climbing up a latter, a rather rickety and weak latter. When he put his weight on the second rung, he heard a slight crack emanate out of the wood and he paused only for a few seconds to make sure that it was not going to snap off before continuing on once again. Within a matter of minutes, Mello had his feet firmly on the floor of the balcony and was staring through the open window at the room past the light-blue curtains.

It was a bedroom, that much he could tell. The curtains were more like a veil and he could only catch glimpses of what was inside. He saw what looked like a dresser; a mirror, a few hair clips and rubber bands lay sprawled out across the top, and a hair brush sat next to the accessories. He pulled back the curtains and saw the bed to his left but it was what was in the bed that sent a shiver down his spine. Vesni lay asleep in a white nightdress with the covers shoved down to the foot of the bed.

She looked so peaceful, Mello did not want to disturb her slumber by being there and yet he could not move away from her. What was he doing? His legs moved of their own accord and he got closer and closer to the side of the bed. Why was he here? He did not know. Soon, he was right next to the bed and staring down at the sleeping girl. Mello hated what his body did. He could not control his hand as it reached down and brushed a lock of red hair out of Vesni's sleeping eyes. He wanted to pull back; to run out of the room, jump off the balcony and leave the place forever but his body would not respond to his screaming mind. His hand moved from her smooth face to her back. He felt down her spine and shuddered at the feel of her soft skin. He hated it, hated all of it, hated her. She was the one who made him argue with himself, made him hate himself, made him want to kill himself. She confused him. It was not what she did that confused him, or how she acted, but what she said. Everything she said gave away the fact that she hated him, that she despised him and yet there was that one subtle hint that gave him doubts about it.

What was it that he felt for her, hate, love, resentment? Whatever it was, he hated it. He wanted the confusion, the mixed feelings; he wanted _her _to be gone, but there was nothing he could do. She was stuck there, in his life. There was no getting rid of her. The mafia needed her, needed her services. If she were gone, where would they get all the weapons that they needed? He hated that fact that he needed her, needed her business. Why did she have to become an arms dealer? Why could she not follow in her parent's footsteps and become a conartist?

Sighing heavily, Mello lifted his hand off her skin and he turned around to leave. He was just pulling back the curtain veils when he heard the sound of a bullet click into place and felt the barrel of a hand gun on his spine then a voice overflowing with malevolence spoke to him.

"What are you doing here?" It was Vesni. She had awoken just in the nick of time to see Mello leaving the room. It was a wonderful question. What _was _he doing there? Even he did not know the answer to her question. The scarred blonde did not know how to answer but decided to wing it as he slowly turned around to face the red-read. Her eyebrows were knitted so close together they were almost touching each other. She clearly was pissed off and disturbed by his presence.

"I," he paused. What should he say? "I just came to apologize." _What? Apologize? What am I thinking? I have nothing to apologize for, do I? Well, I already said it so I better just go with it. _

Vesni growled. "Apologize?" she said angrily. "It's a little late for that, jackass."

Mello sighed. This was not what he came for, but he had to play the part. "I'm sorry…about five years ago." He was not really sorry, but he had to pretend he was, otherwise his insides would be spilled all over Vesni balcony in two seconds. "I didn't mean to hurt you." It was a down-right lie and she knew it. She could see right through him, see to his lies, through his deceit right down to his cold, black heart. Fortunately for him, she was willing to take what she got and let bygones be bygones.

The pistol in Vesni's hands shook from the fury and resentment she was attempting to keep inside her. She slowly lowered the pistol, dropped it to the floor, and glared up at him. "I know what you just said to me is, hands down, an obvious lie," she began. "But, even though it was empty, I'll take the apology." She pointed to the window, her hand still shaking. "Now get out. I never want to see you around here again." With that, she picked up her gun, turned around, set it back on her nightstand, and climbed back onto the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

Mello stared at her for only a couple of seconds before turning around and jumping back down to the ground. When he got to his feet, he ran, ran as fast as he could. He hated himself for going to see her, hated that he could not stop himself from touching her, from staring at her. He had so many thoughts and mixed feelings that he thought his head would explode.

He reached his motorcycle sweating and out of breath from the hot, southern California night air. Swinging his leg over the seat, he turned the key in the ignition and sped off down the urban road to nowhere in particular.

--

Vesni opened her eyes when she heard Mello hit the ground beneath her balcony. Getting out of her bed, she ran to the railing of her balcony in time to see the leather-clad blonde sprinting around the corner and out of sight. The red-head watched the corner where she last saw him as if he would suddenly reappear and come back. But after several minutes of just concrete sidewalk to stare at, she knew he was not coming back. Collapsing onto her knees from weak and shaking legs, she gripped the railing and cried for the first time in seven years. She did not think she was crying because of Mello, but all the years of hatred, bitterness, and sadness was let out in the span of only a couple of hours.

Each salty droplet fell on her bare knees and stained her white nightdress. Vesni gripped the railing and sat down on her heels. The tears would not stop and soon her soft cheeks were covered in the salty liquid. Her own thoughts betrayed her outer appearance. Inside, she was not the cold and uncaring arms dealer. Inside, she was a young child who missed her parents, who longed to know her name, who wanted her one friend back, who wanted to live happily ever after just like any young girl would. The moment her car crashed into the side of a Japanese building and killed her parents, her life crumbled before her. Her dreams had been shot to ribbons and she now knew that what she wanted would never happen, could never happen.

That night, Vesni cried herself back to sleep.

**A/N: Yay! Controversial romances are FUN!! though kind of dramatic, oh well...**

**Are they starting to feel something for the other, or no? You choose! Tell me what you think!**

**Thank you to all those people who reviewed on the last chapter! (sniff) I love you all! But don't forget to do it again, or I'll just have to cut your heart out with a SPOON!**

**FoxFire Pheonix: Why with a spoon, sister? Why not with an ax?**

**Marine L. Girard: Because it's DULL, you TWIT! It'll HURT more!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Interesting chapter title, I know. During the five year break, all you get to know is that they left Japan and came back to California. During that time, they did not see each other. There you go, that's what happened.**

**Not much to say right now, so please, enjoy this new chapter.**

Part 5 Stalking Bastard

"_Please see the bleeding heart perched on my shirt." –Wasteland by 10 Years_

The next night, Vesni had the overwhelming desire for an alcoholic drink. She did not know what kind, just any kind really. She did not keep alcohol in her house so, shutting down her computer; she walked out of her office, informed her servants that she would be out for a while, and left the house. Grabbing her car keys, she walked into her garage and unlocked her Chevy Malibu. Settling into the front seat, she turned the car on and backed out of her driveway after opening the garage door.

Vesni drove down a few blocks until she was out of the residential area she lived in and then sped down the street towards the one bar that she always went to when she was feeling down, which unsurprisingly was most of the time. Arriving in the parking lot, she pulled on the parking brake and turned off her car. She stood up next to her bright green Malibu and ran a hand through her hair. Heaving a big sigh, she grabbed her wallet from the glove box of her car and stuffed it in the back pocket of her torn and baggy, knee-length jean shorts, turned, and walked to the front door of the bar. At the door, she showed the bouncer her ID to show that she was over twenty-one and proceeded inside. Sitting on a barstool, she flagged down the bartender, ordered a glass of scotch, and settled to moping over her drink.

When she had drank only half of the glass, a new customer entered the bar and sat down one stool to her left. Vesni knew the paying customer was a man, but she refused to look at anything but her drink. When the man spoke, she blotted out his voice and only noticed the deep, tenor voice that was male. The red-head was too absorbed in her drink to notice anything around her and it was not until the man next to her called her name several times did she acknowledge anyone other than herself.

"Hey, Vesni," the man said, shaking her shoulder. Vesni looked up at the man and stared right into the familiarly scarred face of Mello. "What are you doing at a bar?"

The red-headed arms dealer frowned and shrugged his hand off her shoulder. "You don't need to know." She was not going to tell him that _he _was the reason for her going there. She would never admit to anyone that she had cried the night before from anger, resentment, fear, and a feeling that she could not describe but knew that it was directed at Mello. Turning back to the bar, she hailed the bartender once again. "Bartender, my bill please!"

The bartender, a muscular man with a neatly trimmed beard and a tattoo of a Chinese dragon on his hairy forearm, came by and handed Vesni a slip of paper. She read it over, took out her wallet, pulled out a few bills, slapped them on the counter and left the bar. Walking out onto the side walk, she trudged down the street in search of another bar, one, preferably, without Mello. The truth was, she was afraid of Mello. He scared her. It was not really what he did to her, what he could do to her; but more of how he made her feel. Vesni hated the unknown and she was afraid of what she felt for Mello. She could not figure it out, she hated him, or she liked him, or maybe it was something else that she could not put her finger on. The events of the day before proved that she was afraid, but afraid of what? Reality? What was reality? Nothing made any sense to her anymore.

She had only walked past two buildings when she heard the same voice from inside the bar call her name once again.

--

Mello watched her, watched her pay the bartender, stand up suddenly, and angrily stomp out of the bar. He knew why she did it, she was avoiding him. She specifically said that she never wanted to see him again and yet here he was, sitting next to her in the same bar. He did not mean to enter the same bar she was at, he just happened to come in and see her sitting next to him.

Without even thinking, he left his own payment on the bar next to hers, stood up, and followed her out of the building. Stopping in front of the door, he looked around the parking lot and noticed that no cars had left, but Vesni was missing. Running to the sidewalk, he saw her walking down the street just a couple of buildings down. He did not know why he followed her, or called her name again and again until she noticed him, or even what he was going to say to her once he caught up to her. He fought with himself, trying to get his body to stop running, to stop calling her name.

Vesni turned around slightly at the sound of her name, but when she laid eyes on Mello, she turned away from him and started walking faster. When the scarred blonde reached her, he grabbed her arm and forced her to face him. Her face was a frightened mess, that much he could tell. She really did not want to see him. She fought him, struggled to release her arm from his iron-like grip.

"Vesni!" He held her firmly, not letting her go. "Why?" She continued to struggle but he grabbed her other arm and forced her to stay still. He glared at her. "Why are you running from me?" This was a question that he really wanted the answer to. Sure she hated him, but she did not have to threaten him with his life every time they bumped into each other.

Vesni glared up at him. Her eyes reflected the headlights of the cars passing by on the street they stood next to and the fluorescent lights of restaurant, bar, and night club signs. She shook when he touched her, her skin shivered as if a cold chill had run down her spine.

"You know very well why!" she cried. Again, she tried to free herself from his grip, but came up the weaker. She looked down as if ashamed of something. She stared at his red-beaded rosary, the same one from five years before, and brushed her red bangs out of her face. Her hands were shaking so she grabbed them to hold them still. "Five years ago…" she trailed off, her voice almost failing her. "Five years ago, you…" She could not finish her sentence but she did not need to; Mello knew exactly what she meant. He had hurt her and he knew it. He felt guilty, something he had never felt before. It was a feeling that he despised and wanted to somehow rid himself of it. The only problem was that he did not know how. Guilt, what a nasty feeling.

He let out a depressed sigh. "Vesni, I'm sorry." Surprisingly, he felt like he meant it. It was strange, a small amount of weight was lifted off his shoulders and he felt like he could breathe a bit easier; but the weight came back in full force when he saw her shake her head. "I mean it this time, please, Vesni…" He trailed off when he saw her face again. Tears, not small ones that seemed to mean nothing, but big tears that gushed out of her eyes like a waterfall flowed down her face and onto her black tank top. Mello quickly released her arms, and stared at her in bewilderment. She looked aside at the street, deliberately avoiding his gaze. The blonde was stunned, he had never seen her cry before, and he did not think that she could, not this severely. It was a side of Vesni that he never experienced before.

"No," she said, her voice barely audible over the sound of blaring music from a nearby club and cars speeding down the road. Mello reached to her, trying to wipe the tears away, but she turned away in an attempt to hide the fact that she was crying, but it was too late, he had already seen. "I don't believe you do." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and turned her back to him. He was about to touch her shoulder, but she ran off before he could lay a finger on her soft skin. He watched her until she turned into another bar and was out of sight. Angry, he balled his hands into fists, spun around and headed back to his motorcycle. If she was going to be like that, fine; but he was not done with her yet. He still had a slight feeling of guilt and he wanted it gone. The only problem was that he had to convince Vesni that he truly was sorry for events five years over.

--

The stifling air of the night club filled Mello's lungs and made him gag. He did not know how anyone, including Vesni, could stand it. The scarred blonde sat at a table in the back of the club, sipping on a fancy and rare alcoholic drink while keeping an eye on a certain red-head dancing in between two rather good-looking men. She seemed like she was happy, having fun and enjoying herself. The blonde mafia member knew better, she was not happy. What she appeared like was just a mask to hide her depressing emotions from the outside world.

The room was rather warm and Mello had to reach up and wipe a few sweat beads off his grotesque scar. He hated this place, so why was he there? The weekend before, he had made the decision to make Vesni believe that he was truly sorry for what he did to her. It would be no easy task; she had it firmly plastered in her mind that he did not care about what he had done. That was not true, was it? Did he really not care? He did have a slight pang of guilt so maybe he did care. Whatever the reason, he was going to convince her whether she wanted him to or not. It was just something he had to do.

He watched as the last song ended and Vesni walked off the dance floor. He did not move from his seat even after she walked out the back door to the club; but when he saw the two men she had been dancing with converse with each other then follow her, Mello could not help but wonder what was going on and followed the two men out the door.

Outside, the leather-clad blonde hid behind a dumpster and watched the scene unfold before him. Vesni was cornered, backed up against the alley wall with the two men trapping her there. Both men were laughing and one of them felt up the red-head's body, running his hand up and down her short and snug, halter-topped, bright green dress. She smacked the thug's hand hard and he removed his fingers from her bare leg. She glared at him threateningly but it did not seem to bother the man. He reached for her, attempting to tear her dress off while the other man held her tightly, making sure that she could not move.

The scarred mafia member behind the dumpster was angered by what he was witnessing. As soon as he heard her scream, he pulled out his gun from the pocket of his jacket, and without alerting his presence to the two thugs about to rape the poor woman; he fired two shots to the back of the head. The man closest to him froze for a few seconds then slumped to the asphalt dead. Confused, his companion let go of the young arms dealer and stared at the dead man utterly dumbstruck. This provided all the time and leverage Vesni needed to pull out her four-inch long knife from its hidden place in her flat-heeled boots and plunge the blade into the man's back. Within seconds, he had joined his friend in the afterlife, their empty shells sprawled out and bleeding on the ground.

Vesni cleaned off her blade on the dead man's T-shirt, sheathed it again, and looked around curiously for her savior. Her face turned from hopeful to crestfallen when she set her eyes on the scarred blonde. He was obviously the last person she wanted to see. Standing up, she walked past him but was stopped when he grabbed her bare arm again and turned her towards him.

"You idiot!" he yelled. She flinched at his harsh and angry voice and tried to break free but he held her arm like a vice. "What are you doing taking a breather in a back alley!?" She turned away from him, not wanting to talk, but he shook her roughly and was forced to say something.

"I just…wanted to be alone." She was nervous, Mello could tell that much from the way she sounded. She hated talking to him and all she wanted was for him to leave her alone; but he was not about to do that any time soon. Not until he had said what he planned to say. She looked up at him, suddenly angry. "What are you doing here, anyway?" she asked. "Why are you following me?"

"I…" he paused. "I don't know." His mind was suddenly wiped clean and he had forgotten everything that he had wanted to do, forgotten the reason he was there. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Mello's grip on her arm slackened a bit and she was able to wiggle it free of his grasp. He dropped his hand to his side and looked down at the two dead bodies in front of him. "Be more careful next time, won't you?" he hissed. Suddenly, he felt a hard slap to the side of his face and a stinging pain took over his scarred cheek. Turning his head, he saw Vesni fuming with pent up anger and her fists shaking with raging fury. "What…?" Mello could not really comprehend what had just happened until the red-head began to scream at him.

"What is with you!?" she cried out; her whole body shaking with rage. "What do I matter to you anyway!? You don't care; you don't give a damn about me! Why don't you just leave me alone and mind your own business! I can't believe you, following me around like some love-sick puppy! Just let it go already! I don't want anything to do with you so stay the fuck away!" She finished her rant and walked past him back to the club door. "I don't want to see you around me again; this is your last warning _Mello._" She put emphasis on his name and it stung. Suddenly hearing his alias was foreign to him. It was not natural. Hearing that name come out of her lips was like getting shot in the chest one hundred times over.

Just before she opened the back door to the club, he said the name he never thought he would ever say out loud for her to hear. "Mihael…" She stopped, her hand poised over the door handle ready to turn it. Spinning around, she stared at him with a totally baffled facial expression.

"What the…?"

"My name…" He trailed off, second guessing his decision to tell her his real name. "My real name is Mihael Keehl." He was surprised at himself. He never thought that he would ever say that name out loud; but here he was, telling a girl who despised him, feared him even, the name that he was told should never be said.

Vesni glared at him. "What is that, Russian?" She was completely sarcastic, obviously not caring about it.

Mello shrugged. "I'm not exactly sure," was all he could say before she turned and left his sight muttering something that sounded like "Whatever," before walking back into the club. He sighed, mentally kicking himself in the shins. His eyes stayed glued to the door she had disappeared behind for a few minutes hoping that she would come back out but knew she never would. Saddened and depressed, he turned around and pulled the two bullets he had shot out of the dead man's head, stuffed them in his pants pocket and left the alley. He was not going to take any chances with law enforcement finding who had killed the man just from what bullets had been used. Putting his helmet over his head, Mello turned on his motorcycle and sped off down the street to Vesni's home. He knew she would be really angry to see him there, but he had to. He had to tell her he was sorry if it was the last thing he did.

--

Once Vesni entered the club after her run-in with Mello, she left immediately out the front door. Getting in her car, she backed out of the parking space, switched the transmission into drive and drove out of the parking lot. She was on her way home when she saw a small children's park and made a last minute decision to stop and rest in the soft grass. It was late, but she really did not care. Slamming on the brakes, she skidded to a halt and parallel parked right next to the curb. Vesni turned her green Malibu off and stepped out of the front seat into the warm night air. She walked down a slight hill until she came across a spot that appealed to her the most. She squatted down, felt the cool grass with the palm of her hand, then quickly lay down and stretched out her tired limbs. The red-head rested her head on her hands and stared up at the smog-filled night sky. She could barely make out any stars and after several minutes of trying, she realized that the sky was not filled with smog, but rain clouds. After a while, rain started to fall. First in small amounts that she did not really care about, then, after a couple of minutes, it began to pore so she stood up and ran back to her car. Getting in, she turned the key in the ignition and once she heard the engine roar to life, she pressed on the gas and drove off back to her house.

**A/N: Okay, if these get a little boring, please tell me. The climax does not really come until the chapter after next, so hang in there.**

**The next chapter picks up where this one left off, just so's you know.**

**Review! or I'll stab you with my two pairs of drumsticks! They're dull so they will hurt terribly!! I'm warning you!!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Okay, continuation of the last chapter. I kind of like this chapter so I hope you do to.**

**Sorry, the only mention of Mello's fondness for chocolate was in chapter three, I kinda forgot about it as I was writing this. Maybe I'll put more of it in later chapters.**

Part 6 Revealed Bastard

"_Am I your one and only desire? Am I the reason you breathe or am I the reason you cry?" –Always by Saliva_

The young red-head drove through the front gate of her yard and clicked the garage door opener clipped to her sun visor just above the windshield of her car. As he was pulling into her garage, she noticed a black motorcycle with a helmet sitting on the seat just outside of the wall that separated her yard from the road. She did not notice it before but dismissed it as nothing and turned off her windshield wipers before turning off the car itself.

Stepping out of the Malibu, she grabbed her wallet and was about to shut the big overhead door with the switch bolted to the wall next to the door that led to the inside of her house when she heard a distinct voice come from outside. Vesni paused, her finger poised over the button that would shut the overhead door, and listened to see if she would hear the voice again. But after a few minutes of no sound with the exception of the rain pounding on the concrete driveway, she shrugged it off and attempted to shut the door once again. She stopped when she heard the voice again, this time saying her name, but it was a lot louder and closer. She recognized the voice and it infuriated her. What was he doing here? Had he not had enough?

Vesni's hands shook from anger and she whirled around to come face-to-face with a sopping wet Mello. His wet hair was plastered to his forehead and clung to his neck like Velcro. Water dripped off his soaking motorcycle jacket and covered the floor of the garage with rain water. The front of his jeans was obviously soaked, showing that he had ridden his motorcycle in the storm. That explained the bike out front. He must have been out in the rain for quite some time. Once again, she tried to smack him upside the head like she had done about forty-five minutes ago, but Mello was prepared for that this time and caught her wrist in his big hand before her palm was able to make contact with his face.

"Why are you _here_!?" she screamed. She twisted her wrist free of his grasp, but all he did was stay quiet and stare at her oddly. She shivered, not liking the look he was giving her. It felt like he was looking right through her and it gave her chills. Part of her wanted to keep him there, but most of her wanted to kick his sorry ass back out into the rain-soaked streets. "Please, just leave me alone for once!"

"I can't do that," was all he said. She stared up into his eyes and saw that he was completely serious. She hated it, despised it, why was he haunting her like that? All she wanted to do was forget him, forget he existed, forget what he had done; she wanted to forget everything, even Matt. Everything in her past was too painful to remember and it was just a lot easier on her if she just forgot; but Mello was not going to let her, he would not allow her to forget. He always found some way to torment her life. She detested everything about him and wanted him gone.

"If you're not going to leave, then just tell me why you're here at least." She glared at him, ignoring the rain that seeped into the garage from the open door.

"I'm here to apologize." This time he actually meant it. He _was_ there to apologize; unlike the last time where he said it just to cover his tracks.

"I told you that it's too late for that," she hissed. "I don't want your fucking apology." She shook her head. "Get out of here already! Just leave me alone!"

Mello reached an arm out and rested a hand on the back of her neck, forcing her to look up at him while his other hand grabbed her arm and held her still. "Look at me," he commanded. She tried to avert her eyes but he shook her head violently, making her whimper pathetically. "LOOK AT ME!" he yelled at her. She flinched but stared up at his rage-contorted face. "I'm sorry, okay?" His face softened into a more serious expression and he spoke again. "I can't take back what I did five years ago and I've had all of it hanging over my head like a fucking rain cloud all that time. Don't think that I don't feel any guilt because it's not true. Every day it haunts me, and I hate it. Then you showed up and just added to my shame. Why can't you just understand that?"

Vesni's whole body shook. She did not know why, but she could not control it. It was like a shiver; it stopped every-so-often but started up again almost immediately. "You," she said, cutting off the end of her sentence as if she had changed her mind about what she was going to say; but then suddenly continued. "You killed your best friend, _my _best friend, all for the sake of trying to become number one. That whole time you acted as if none of it really mattered." She paused for a few seconds before continuing again. "How can I believe you now when you didn't care before?"

Mello sighed heavily. "I may have acted like I didn't care, but inside I was crying. You think I would accidently get my best friend killed and not care? Matt was the only one who believed I could win. He was my only friend and now he's gone. Why would I not care about that?"

Vesni had to admit, he did have a point; but she was not ready to believe him, was not going to believe him; either she was too afraid to or she just did not want to. She never believed him before so what made this time any different? She shook her head again. "I'm sorry, but I can't believe you; I just won't."

He sighed once again. Removing his hand from the back of her neck, he cupped her cheek and tried one more time. "Vesni, please-."

"No!" she suddenly cried out. The red-head shoved his hand off her face and pushed him away. "Everything you said to me before was a lie so what makes right now any different!?" She ran past him and out into the rain. Mello called her name but she ignored him. She could not stand to see him anymore; why was he going to say all those things if he did not mean them? A piece of her wanted to believe him, but she just could not, she would not.

Within seconds of leaving the shelter of the garage, she was soaked to the skin and shivering. She felt the grass of her large front yard under her boots but did not stop. She was aiming for a direct course to the front gate, but when she left, where would she go? She had left her house behind her and she really did not have any friends that she could bunk with for a few nights. All she wanted to do was get away from Mello. Suddenly, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and stop her from running. Scared, she struggled, trying to free herself, but it was just no use. She knew who held her and she wanted nothing to do with him. "No!" she screamed. "Let go of me! Leave me alone!"

"Vesni, calm down!" Mello sat down on his heels in the cold, wet grass; bringing Vesni with him. She squirmed in his grasp but he was not going to let her go. She was not herself, she was not thinking straight. Why else would she run out in the pouring rain in nothing but a skimpy green dress and a pair of boots? His arms held her tight and the red-head began to feel tears well up in her eyes again. Why was he doing this to her? It was like torture and it hurt too much for her to bear. The salty tears ran down her cheeks and mixed with the rainwater that constantly spilled over their heads. Her dress was soaking wet and the grass was freezing against her bare legs but none of it mattered. She turned her body around and beat her fists against Mello's chest.

"I hate you, you bastard!" she cried. She was too weak from grief and the cold to make any kind of damage to the blonde, but it did not stop her. "You're an ass! You keep following me like a living taunt! I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! Just go away!" Her fists took the edges of his wet motorcycle jacket with them and she screamed her lungs out into the cloth.

He held her body close to his and whispered in her ear. "Vesni, please, I'm not lying this time. I promise." Her shoulders quivered from her crying and her tears stained his sopping wet blue-jeans.

"How do I know that?" she asked between sobs. "Prove to me that you're not lying." She heard him let out a big sigh before she felt his cold hand touch her chin and raise her head to look at him. She squeezed her eyes shut; expecting him to hit her but was surprised to feel cold, soft lips on her own. The red-head could not believe he did that. She was frightened when she remembered what happened the last time he had kissed her; but none of that happened this time and within a few seconds, it was over. She opened her eyes and blinked a few times, stunned. What just happened? Mello had kissed her which is what happened. Her vision was blurry from the tears that still fell out of her eyes but she could tell he wore a straight face, a serious face. She pushed herself off of him. "Why?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I'm sorry," was all he said.

"Earlier," she began, suddenly deciding on a change of subject. She did not want to dwell on what had just happened. "Why did you tell me your real name?" She may have acted like she did not care about it at the time, but the truth was that she was really curious. Why _did _he give her his real name?

Mello looked at his hands for a moment then dropped them onto the wet grass before answering. "I…just wanted you to know it." He really did not have a reason other than that, so it would just have to do.

Vesni wiped more tears from her eyes with the back of her wet hand but it was no use, they would not stop flowing out of her eyes. "I'm sorry…" she started. "I'm sorry I can't give you my own name," she said. He put a hand to her face and touched the salty liquid pouring out of her green orbs. She flinched when she felt his cold fingers on her skin but did not pull away.

"Very well," he began. Confused, she sniffed and looked up at him. He was standing and zipping up his motorcycle jacket. "I'll find it for you; you don't need to tell me." That said, he turned and walked away from her towards his motorcycle.

"You're leaving?" she asked him, sounding like she did not want him to, but in reality, she was glad to see him go, though at the same time disappointed. All she saw was a hand wave a goodbye to her and he walked past the gate and turned the corner out of sight. "Fine, you bastard! Leave! See if I care!" Her body slumped to the cold, wet grass and more tears than had come before seeped past her guard and joined the rain water in the long, thin, green leaves beneath her face. "You're such an asshole, Mello," she sobbed quietly through gritted teeth. "You always leave just when you're needed…" Vesni heard the motorcycle engine fire up and speed off down the street, soon disappearing all together; the sound drowned out by the rain and her loud crying. "I hate you so much, why don't you just leave my life forever?" That said, she stayed sprawled out on the freezing cold grass doing nothing but sobbing.

--

A bulky man with dark hair wearing camouflage hid behind some tall bushes in the side yard near the back of Vesni's big mansion. He held up a pair of binoculars and focused them on the tall blonde man that walked across the front lawn of the large, fancy house. A dark green Chevy Malibu had just entered the garage in the front of the house and the man watched as the blonde below disappeared inside the garage after the Malibu. The dark-haired man sighed and lowered the binoculars. He honestly thought that the boss was just paranoid. Mello would never fall for some woman who sold illegal weapons on the Black Market for a living, would he? It just was not like him. Even if he was in love with her, which he probably was not, what was so bad about it? Obviously something was wrong with it because the boss was not happy when he had begun to suspect the twenty-five-year-old blonde.

The camouflaged man lowered his binoculars and picked up a waterproof radio receiver. Pressing a button on the top of the radio, he spoke in to the speaker. "Skinner, what's going on at your end? I've lost visual." He lifted his thumb off the button and a voice that belonged to the man named Skinner crackled through the radio speaker.

"They jus' appear to be arguing. I think ya were right, Dex, I don' think he's fallen for 'er, or her for him. They're probably just friends'r less than tha' even."

Dex nodded. "Thanks Skinner. Let me know when something happens." He set the radio down next to his binoculars and sat still waiting for something to happen. So far, the whole stakeout was the most boring thing Dex had ever done in his life, not to mention cold and wet; he hated rain. Nothing exciting ever happened and he could not wait until the boss was satisfied so that he did not have to continue with the mind-numbing job. About a minute had past when Skinner's Alabama-accent crackled back onto the radio.

"Well, thar's some affection." Dex jumped, startled, and grabbed the radio. He fumbled with the button before he got it right and was able to talk to the man on the other side of the fancy mansion.

"What was that?" he asked. The voice that answered sounded frantic and eager.

"Quick, ge' ready. They're leavin' the g'rage." Dex nearly dropped the radio from excitement and picked up his binoculars, placed them to his eyes and watched the attention-grabbing scene in front of him. The woman ran out of the garage and tried to make a brake for the gate but was caught by Mello and pulled to the ground. She seemed to be struggling against him but it was not working. She turned around and weakly beat at the scarred blonde's chest, then stopped and a scream echoed across the neighborhood, making a chill run up Dex's spine. She was obviously upset, most likely at Mello. The two sat still for a moment until they moved again.

"Whoa." The camouflaged man gapped at what had just happened. "That was unexpected," he said, not believing what his eyes had just shown him. Mello had kissed the Black Market businesswoman. _Kissed _her! Maybe there was something going on after all. Without taking his eyes off the event, Dex picked up his radio and hailed Skinner. "Did you just _see _that?" he asked, disbelieving.

"Yeah, 'e kissed 'er all righ'," the hick replied. "Got a pretty good fron' row view, too."

After a few minutes of nothing, Dex watched as Mello stood up, zipped his jacket and walked away from the girl on the wet grass. She screamed something at him and he turned around the corner. The bulky man in camouflage saw the blonde speed off on his motorcycle as the red-headed girl sprawled out on the grass. She appeared to be crying, but he could not be sure.

"Skinner, what's she doing?" Dex asked through the radio speaker.

"Sobbing," he answered plainly. "Or somethin' o' the sort; I can' really tell."

Dex sighed and set the radio down. He watched the girl for some time before she slowly stood up, walked back in the garage and was gone. Grabbing the radio, he lowered the binoculars and removed himself from his hiding place. "Skinner, we're done here. Grab your stuff and let's get out of here." He heard something from the radio that sounded like an "alright" before he swiftly and quietly crept back to the front yard and made his way to the residential street. When he got there, a dark figure dropped down from a tree that stood just outside the yard and overlooked the front wall. The figure walked up to Dex and patted him on the back.

"Sorry 'bout tha'," he said in a southern accent. "I know ya though' tha' nothin' was happenin'. Looks like the boss's righ' again." Dex pulled on the man's long pony tail in annoyance, making him grunt in agony.

"Shut up, Skinner," he said, his voice frustrated and strained. "Let's just go inform the boss." Skinner rubbed the back of his neck, shrugged, and followed his partner to an old Jeep Cherokee with shotgun scars parked just around the corner of the block.

**A/N: Yay! It's the mafia military style! The only reason it's like this is because I know more about the military than the mafia. Personally, I like Skinner, the happy-go-lucky Southerner. Isn't he cool? **

**I actually _have_ a Jeep Cherokee with shotgun scars on the driver's side. Hee, hee, they have my car...**

**Oooookaaaay...only two people this time for reviews for the last chapter. You people are falling down on your job!! Perhaps the drumsticks were not the right way to go. If you don't review for this one, I guess I'll have to run you over several times with my motorcycle. How's that? Sound good?**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Thanks so much Jamey for reading my story! Just so you know, this story begins at the end of Death Note and in the first chapter, that was were Mello was supposed to die in the series. Just so's you know. Hoping you're having fun in Japan! Love, Sam.**

**Yay! Climax time!**

Part 7 Confused Bastard

"_But don't you forget, the more you turn away, the more I want you to stay." –Cold (But I'm still here) by Evans Blue_

It had been an entire month since the last time Vesni had watched Mello walk away from her and drive off in the pouring rain. In that time, they had not seen or talked to the other at all. The red-head was glad for the break. At last she could get some breathing space and time to herself without the blonde finding some way to butt in. Yet she could not help but wonder what the scarred blonde was up to that whole time.

Now that June Gloom was over, the skies had cleared up and the July heat kicked in. Vesni walked down the dark, southern California street to her dark green Malibu after a late night dinner at a delicious seafood restaurant. Her stomach happy, she got into the driver's seat and shut the door. Checking her mirrors, Vesni put her seatbelt on and turned on the car. As soon as she was about to back out of her parking space, she heard a voice come from the back seat that made her jump and cry out in surprise.

"You know, your car smells funny." It was Mello. He sat up and revealed his burned face in the rear-view mirror.

"Gaah!" Vesni's foot slid off the brake pedal and her car rolled backwards until she calmed down and stopped the back end from ramming into some poor guy's fancy black Corolla. Turning around in the seat, she glared at the blonde. "Mello! How the fuck did you get in here?" Oddly enough, she was more concerned on how he managed to get in the car than the fact that he was actually in there.

The blonde brushed some of his hair out of his face and climbed into the front seat next to Vesni. "Simple, the doors were unlocked, so I helped myself in." He tapped the door handle with his fingers before continuing. "Then I just locked them again so no one else could get in." Vesni frowned. That was odd; she was sure she had locked the doors before she entered the restaurant. How did they get unlocked?

Dismissing that fact for the time being, she drove out of the parking lot and, signaled to turn right, and pulled out onto the busy street. The two were silent until the car stopped at the next stop light and Vesni decide to break the silence. "Have you found anything about my name yet?" she asked, hopeful.

"Not yet," Mello answered with no emotion as he glanced out the window.

The red-head sighed angrily. "Then why are you here?" she demanded. If he had not found anything, than he had no reason to be in her car. At least that was how Vesni saw it. If he did not have a reason, she was obligated to kick him out onto the busy street. He could get run over for all she cared.

"I'm not sure…" His voice trailed off and he continued to avoid her gaze. The traffic light turned green and Vesni pressed on the gas pedal, speeding off down the street once again towards her home. Was it a home? No, that house was not a home at all; if anything, it was a prison. Once she had entered the Black Market, she could not turn back. If she quit, the mafia would hunt her down until she died or they killed her. There was no doubt about it, she was trapped in a place she did not want to be. "I kind of…came on a whim."

Vesni clicked her tongue in annoyance and turned down a road with a big sign that read "San Domingo Estates". A mile in, she had passed three driveways before she arrived at her own. Stopping in front of her gate, she punched in the code in the small box that she had pulled up next to and waited for the gate to open before entering her yard. She pulled down her sun visor, clicked a button on her garage door remote, and parked in her garage. Shutting the overhead door again, she turned off her car and undid her seat belt.

"Well, here we are again," she said softly. Mello glanced at her through the corner of his eye. "In my garage again."

The two sat quietly for several minutes, neither moving until Vesni opened her door and got out. The scarred blonde watched her pass in front of the car and enter her house through a white-painted wooden door.

Vesni walked up the spiral staircase leading to the second story of her house and entered her bedroom. She walked to her dresser, opened the third drawer from the top and pulled out a two-piece blue and black swim suit. Stripping off her red tank top and skin-tight jeans, she put on the swim suit, grabbed a white, fluffy towel from the same dresser drawer and walked out of her bedroom, down the stairs to her backyard where a nice, cool swimming pool was waiting for her.

Stepping out through a sliding glass door, Vesni set her towel on a lounge chair and quietly slipped in the cool water. Taking a deep breath, she dipped her head under the water to wet her hair and then came back up, smoothing her red hair out of her face and wiping her eyes clean. She then took another breath and swam a few laps around the pool. Swimming had always been a way for her to clear her head and calm down and lately she found herself confiding in the pool a lot. She had her suspicions why but she would never say them out loud. She did not want to and she refused to.

After her tenth lap around the pool, she stopped to take a break and catch her breath when she heard a familiar voice address her. "Hey Vesni, why are you swimming at ten-thirty at night?" The red-head gasped and shoved herself away from the edge of the pool, away from Mello.

"Why are you still here!?" she cried, answering his question with a question of her own. She thought that he would have left by now, gone back to where ever it was that he resided. Yet here he was, standing next to her pool in the backyard of her own house.

Mello took off his socks and boots, rolled up his pant legs and sat down at the edge of the pool, dangling his feet in the cool water. "I'm miles from my motorcycle; I can't necessarily just get on it and go now can I?" He smiled slightly and looked down and Vesni floating in the water. "Unless you want me to steal your car, I can't go anywhere."

The twenty-three-year-old frowned in annoyance. "Very well, I'll take you back to your motorcycle first thing in the morning, now leave me alone!" She turned around and swam to the other side of the pool. When she touched the wall on the other side, she heard a splash and turned back around to see Mello in nothing but his boxers, dive into the pool and swim over to her. He popped his head up right in front of her face and frowned at her. Vesni felt a shiver run up her spine when he appearing in front of her. He was really scaring her. Why had he suddenly jumped in the pool after her? She did not understand it; she did not understand anything anymore. It was bad enough that he had to stay the night at her house, but now he was swimming in the same pool as her. All she wanted was to be left alone but he was not going to leave and she knew it. What did he want?

"You don't trust me, do you?" he asked, sounding a bit angry. Frightened, Vesni squeezed her eyes shut and quickly shook her head no.

"Of course I don't trust you, idiot!" she screamed. "What makes you think that I would?" He did not answer but asked another question.

"You don't like me, huh?" Vesni thought she was going to cry again. She could feel tears behind her green eyes just waiting to spill out over her face.

"No! I don't like you!" She was about to cry again and Mello knew it. "Not as a friend, not as anything! Is that what you want to hear!? Now, please, just go away!" Vesni slipped out from between him and the edge of the pool and swam to the shallow end where she was able to stand up. The burned mafia member followed her and grabbed her, forcing her into a corner. She refused to meet his gaze and shut her eyes; she knew he was looking at her and she hated it.

"You're lying!" Vesni flinched and tried to swim away from him, but Mello held her still. "Tell me that you're lying!" he demanded.

She shook her head violently. "No, I'm not!" She was sure she was not lying. How could he think that she was? "I hate you, okay! You scare me! I want nothing to do with you!" Her words stung Mello and it felt like his heart was being ripped from his chest. It hurt him to know that she still hated him after five years. But then again, he had not changed a bit since then had he? He was still the same black-hearted bastard he had been during the Kira case. "Please…" she begged. "Just go away…"

The blonde had a feeling that she was lying. In fact, he knew she was; but how could he get the truth out of her? He was determined to have her tell him the truth and was going to get it out of her no matter what means necessary. He grabbed her chin roughly with one hand, forcing her to look at his frustrated face. A single tear fell down her cheek but he forced himself to ignore it. Quickly, he locked their lips together. Vesni was surprised and squirmed, trying to release herself but he would not let her go; the more she struggled, the tighter his grip became on her chin and torso. After a few minutes, her struggles became less and less pronounced and soon she stopped struggling all together. Mello released her when he felt her go limp and studied her face. She was crying, not just the one tear that she let out before, but several of them gushed down her face and into the water. His palm touched her cheek and he wiped away the salty liquid from her face with his thumb.

"Why are you trying to avoid me so much?" he asked, his eyebrows knitted together in a frown. The question was meant to be rhetorical, but the red-head answered anyway.

"Because I'm afraid." She turned her head away from him, glancing at the pool filter right next to her and pushed his hand off her face. Her shoulders shook from her crying; she sniffed, and then tucked a piece of her wet hair behind her ear. "I…" She paused. "I'm afraid of you."

Mello blinked. She was afraid of him? Of course, she said it before; but why? _Why _she was afraid of him was what he wanted to know. This girl, this woman confused him. He did not understand her. First she says that she hates him, and then she says that she's afraid of him. Does she only feel one of those, or both? Whatever it was, he had an incredible urge to reverse those emotions, to turn them into positive feelings towards him. Gently, he slid his hands down to her hips and softly kissed her lips. She did not move but was unusually stiff. All her muscles tensed up when he touched her as if she were trying to make herself a statue; a statue would be unaware of what or who was touching it.

A chill ran up Vesni's spine when she felt his lips on hers. She did not want him there; she wanted him a thousand miles away from her. The last thing she wanted was to have him actually touching her, actually kissing her once again. She despised his touch but yet she could do nothing about it. She was trapped. It was either meld into the wall of the pool or walk through Mello; and because both of those were impossible, she was stuck where she was. Vesni squeezed her eyes shut and did the only thing she could do, let Mello do as he pleased. She felt the bottom of her swim suit getting pulled down over her hips and stop around her thighs. He pressed his body against hers and she could not help but feel a slight bulge in his boxer shorts. She knew what it was and begged for him to stop when he released her lips and kissed down her neck.

"Mello…please stop." He did not listen but moved a hand up her back to the last piece of her swim suit. Where his other hand was, she did not know. "Don't, please…" His tongue lapped at her ear lobe and more tears gushed out of her eyes. It was a repeat of five years ago, only this time she felt torn between two equal sides instead of leaning more towards wanting to shove him off her. Did she want it or did she not? It was the one question that she could not answer.

Vesni felt something push against the inside of her thighs and without thinking, she spread them apart as far as she could. Mello's lengthy organ entered and pushed inside her. She could not help but moan and breathe heavily at the feeling of him inside her again. It had been five years and she had almost forgotten what it felt like. She could not stop crying and the pain of having part of him inside her own body did not help. It hurt her but she could not help but wrap her arms around his torso-her hands brushing up against the burn scar he received when he had saved her life from the exploding transport truck five years ago-and pull him closer to her. She did not come back into reality until he emptied his bodily fluids into her. As soon as she felt the liquid inside her, she stiffened and pushed him away from her. Quickly grabbing her swim suit bottom and pulling it back up on her hips; she turned away from Mello and crawled out of the pool, ashamed at what she had just done.

Mello surprised himself with what he did and when she pushed him off of her, he knew he made a big mistake. He called after her as she grabbed her towel and stormed back inside her house.

"Vesni, I'm sorry!" he said. "Vesni, I didn't mean-!" He cut his sentence short when she slammed the sliding glass door shut.

The red-head ignored him calling after her as she trudged up the stairs to her bedroom. Brushing out her hair, she took her swim suit off and replaced it with a light green night dress. She stared at herself in her mirror. She looked dreadful; tear stains ran down her face, her eyes were red and puffy from crying and her thighs were still red from Mello's touch. Angry, she slammed her fist against the mirror, making a slight crack crawl across the glass. "Fuck you, Mello!" she screamed. "Damn you! Damn you to Hell!" She slammed her arms down on her dresser and slid them across the top, tossing everything onto the floor. Vesni picked up a wooden chair that sat in the corner of her room and threw it across the room, crashing it against the wall and smashing it to pieces. She tore up the room in her rampage, destroying everything she touched, and then finally slumped to the floor, her back against the wall, wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her head in her legs; crying from pain, frustration, and misery.

--

Dex sighed and checked the battery on his digital camera. He had just finished installing bugs in the Black Market businesswoman's green Malibu and fled just in time to be missed by Mello who had entered the car and waited for the red-head in the back seat of the car. When he saw the blonde just open the back door, Dex swore under his breath. In his haste, he had forgotten to lock the doors.

After he and Skinner had reported to the boss, he had insisted that they show proof that what they had witnessed was real. Not being able to give any, Dex and Skinner were forced to follow Mello for the past month until he made contact with Vesni again. The bulky, dark-haired man was about to give up until he saw the scarred blonde enter Vesni's car. He was excited that he would actually get something good to show to the boss. Once the bugs were installed in the Malibu, Dex ran back to the shot-gun scarred Jeep. Skinner drove the Jeep, tailing closely behind the bugged vehicle while Dex sat in the back listening in on the conversation. All they really talked about was a name; Vesni's name. Apparently, Mello had told her he was going to search for her real name.

Back at the house, Dex sat in the bushes of Vesni's backyard waiting for something to happen. They would not be able to get anything if they just stayed in the house and that worried the bulky man. However; he got lucky when the red-head walked out of the house in her swim suit and jumped in the pool and he was excited when the blonde he had been following walked out and joined her. Dex could not hear what the two were saying but he could tell that they were arguing. Soon, Skinner had joined Dex in the bushes and brought along a video camera. The dark-haired man looked at him, noticed the camera and whispered, "You're sick."

The Southerner stared at his video camera, shrugged and turned it on just in time to film Mello strip down to his skivvies and dive in the pool after Vesni. While Skinner filmed everything going on, Dex sat and waited for something interesting to happen. As soon as he saw Mello grab the red-head's chin, he took out his digital camera and snapped a photo. As things progressed, the bulky mobster widened his eyes in surprise.

"Holy shit…" was all he could say as the scene grew hot and heavy. He snapped several more pictures then glanced over at Skinner, who appeared to be…smiling? The sicko was actually enjoying filming the whole ordeal. Dex rolled his eyes and took a few more pictures before shutting off his camera when Vesni pushed Mello away, got out of the pool and stomped back into the house. That was it; they got what they came for now it was time to leave.

Skinner turned off the camera and stood up. "Well, looks like it's time ta go." Dex nodded and followed the long-haired Southerner out of the bushes and back to the front yard.

"Hold on, Skinner," Dex said after stopping, suddenly remembering something. "I need to get the bugs from her car." He turned around and ran back to the mansion.

"Well hurry up, ya buffoon!" the man yelled back in his thick Alabama accent.

"I'll be right back!" Dex quickly and quietly snuck into the garage, busted into the green Malibu, removed the bugs and wiring, locked the car this time, and quickly left the structure without being noticed.

"Jesus, ya think ya got enough wirin' there?" the Southerner asked when Dex returned, a bag filled with the bugs he had removed from the car in his hand. The big man rolled his eyes and glared at his partner.

"Hey, one can never be too careful," he snapped. Skinner just let out a small laugh and climbed into the driver's seat of the old Jeep.

--

Mello sat up on the couch of Vesni's living room. Swinging his legs over the side of the couch and resting his bare feet on the hard-wood floor, he rested his arms on his knees and placed his face in his hands. The man just could not fall asleep. Glancing at the clock on the High-def DVD player, he read the time as 1:02 am.

He felt terrible. He had seduced Vesni once again and she still hated him. The poor woman would probably never talk to him again. Tossing the small blanket he had to the ground, the scarred blonde stood up, grabbed his black T-shirt and walked to the front door, slipping the shirt over his head as he walked out of the building. He had made up his mind. Mello was not going to make Vesni sit through taking him back to his motorcycle. Just his presence would be torture to her.

The man stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans and walked past the front gate of the yard and onto the sidewalk next to the road. He would walk the four miles back to his motorcycle to spare the red-head the humiliation of seeing him again.

--

"You have proof, I take it?" Gordon Jet, the top boss of the mafia, asked the two men standing before him.

The bigger of the two nodded and handed several pictures to his boss. "It took a while, but Skinner and I were finally able get these for you." Jet took the photos from the bulky man. "If those aren't enough, Skinner has a video of the whole thing if you would like to see it."

The boss flipped through the pictures taken of Mello and the red-head in the pool. The two in front of him began to grow nervous after each passing minute that Jet studied the photographs and said nothing. After a while, their boss looked up with a slight smile spread across his face. "Good work, Dex." The man in question let out a sigh of relief when his hard work was praised by his boss. "However; before I take action on this, I would like to see the video you say that you have."

Dex and Skinner stiffened and stood stalk still for a few seconds. Finally, Dex motioned to the Southerner to give Jet the camera. Pulling it out of its carrying case, he handed it to their boss who turned it on and replayed the recorded video. Throughout the whole video, Jet's face became contorted with rage and as soon as it was over, he snapped the screen shut and tossed the camera back to Skinner who fumbled with it before stuffing it back in its case.

"Very well," the mafia boss began. "I order the two of you to capture the both of them as soon as possible." Gordon Jet motioned to a servant who left the room for a few minutes and then returned, followed by eight big, muscular men. "Take these men with you. The bitch is rather dangerous, as is Mello. I want them both taken alive and do not come back here until you have them."

The two men nodded. "Yes, boss." They left the room with the eight men in tow and got ready to head back to the arms dealer's mansion.

--

Vesni jolted awake at three o'clock in the morning. She had a nightmare that several men had come to her house and murdered her in her sleep. After rolling around on her mattress for quite some time, she decided that she would get up and walk around a bit. Getting out of bed, she pulled on a pair of snug pants and a white tank top and walked down her stairs to her kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and pulled out a Strawberry Banana Yoplait yogurt. Just as Vesni opened the top and was about to dig in with her spoon, she felt a hand cover her mouth and a cloth cover her eyes; a strong hand grabbed her wrists and held them behind her back.

She screamed from surprise and fright, but it was muffled by the gloved hand that covered her lips. "Shut up, girl," a deep voice that she did not recognize whispered in her ear. "The boss wants to have a little word with you." Angry, Vesni kicked back hard on the man's kneecap. His legs buckled and he released his grip in her. Spinning around, the red-head grabbed a kitchen knife off the counter top and plunged it into the back of the man's neck, killing him instantly. She had a feeling the big man laying dead on her kitchen floor was not the only one in her house.

Vesni gripped the handle of the knife in her sweaty palm and cautiously walked out of her kitchen. She scanned the sitting room for any sign of someone but did not see anything. She lowered the knife but kept it in her hand as she slowly moved further into the living room, and just when she thought that no one was there, someone grabbed her wrist and twisted it further than she thought it could go. She cried out in pain and dropped the knife to the floor. Suddenly, something solid smacked against the side of her head and she grew delirious. She fell to the floor and glance up to see a craggy-faced man with a long ponytail walked in front of her view. "Sorry, miss," he said in a southern accent. "But it's part o' the job." Her last thought before she sank into a pool of darkness was of Mello's safety. Was he alright, or did they get him, too?

**A/N: Thank you all for sticking with me this far. I know it's hard to stick with a long story, but if it's good...**

**Review! Review or I'll strangle you with my broken computer cord! It's still intact so it'll work... You better watch it... **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: ENTER NEAR, STAGE LEFT!! Yay, the adorable kid!! Finally, Near has come. **

**This one's pretty long, sorry. It took kind of long to write because it was rather boring to write. I hope it's not boring to read. --'**

Part 8 Incompetent Bastard

"_Change my attempt good intentions. Should I? Could I? Here we are with your obsession. Should I? Could I?" –Wasteland by 10 Years_

Mello did not arrive back at his house until four o'clock in the morning. It had taken him a whole hour to walk the four miles back to his motorcycle, and then he had decided that he would just drive around for a bit to clear his head. He had so much controversy in his mind that he could not think straight. After two hours of aimless driving, he finally made up his mind to return home. Arriving at his normal urban house expecting to just lay down on his bed and fall asleep, he instead ended finding his front door kicked in and every single room of the building trashed and wrecked. Entering the living room, the scarred blonde fumed and twisted his face with rage when he saw his couch upturned, his coffee table smashed to bits, and everything completely destroyed.

He studied everything down to the last piece of glass then walked into the kitchen to face the same amount of mess as he had seen in the living room. "What the hell happened here?" he wondered out loud. Mello glanced around the room and saw a slip of paper stuck to the refrigerator door by a flat magnet. Ripping it off the door, he read it over quickly.

_Dear Mello,_

_We've taken your girlfriend. The boss wanted to have a little chat with the both of you, but because you were not at home, he will not be happy that he only got one of you. If you want her back, give yourself up and she will not be harmed. _

_We'll be waiting for you at the hideout._

_Dex._

Livid, the burned blonde crumpled the letter up in his hand and tossed it to the floor. "Dammit! He found out!" Mello stormed out of his house and got right back on his motorcycle. "And she's not my girlfriend!" he said gnashing his teeth as he turned the key in the ignition and sped off down the street towards the highway. He remained on the highway till he was out of the city then exited on the first off ramp he came upon. He stopped at a stop sign, saw that no one was coming the other way, and turned left, crossed over the highway on a bridge and then continued down the same road for several miles until he arrived near a barbed wire fence. Past the fence was an old building that appeared abandoned on the outside, but the inside was outfitted with everything they needed to do their Black Market dealings and defend against intruders.

Mello left his Kawasaki 500 idling in neutral in case he had to make a hasty getaway and cautiously crept up to the building using the shadows of the trees to keep him hidden from those inside the building. When he was fifteen feet from the front door, two men exited the building and stood guard by the door. Without thinking, the blonde ducked behind an old, rusted truck, pulled his gun out of the waist band of his pants, and clicked a bullet into place. He grabbed a silencer from his pocket and screwed it over the barrel, getting ready to quickly sneak into the hide out and get Vesni back. With deadly aim, the scarred blonde poked his head out from behind the truck, saw that the guards did not notice him, and fired two shots, one into each of their heads. The two men slumped to ground, dead, and he slipped out from his hiding place and snuck inside the building.

He was surprised that he did not encounter anyone in the halls. Swiftly and quietly he ran, dodged through the halls and stopped at cross way. He paused and pressed his back against the wall when he heard voices come from down one of the corridors. Adrenalin had kicked in and sped up Mello's breathing when he really had not worked that hard and he had to focus hard to quiet his breathing so he could hear what the men were saying.

"C'mon, just a short one?" a man with a very deep voice pleaded.

"No!" another man said. "The boss, said 'e doesn' want no one touchin' 'er." Mello could tell the man was not from California. His thick, Southern accent gave him away. "If she's assaulted in anyway, Mello won' come for 'er." So it was Vesni they were talking about. Cautiously, the blonde took a peek around to corner and saw a large, dufus of a man and a short, long-haired man standing on front of a metal door that had a large steel bolt that locked it tight. Mello knew that room. It was a storage room that held all their food, weapons, and other such necessities. But why would they hold her in there? If it had weapons, she could easily grab one and free herself. Maybe she was bound and gagged.

He watched as the long-haired Southerner opened the door to the storage room and entered, leaving the large man outside to guard the entrance. Mello had to find a way to get in that room. He knew the grid of the hideout and there was a small window on the back wall of the storage room. Slipping into a spare room that was barely ever used, he passed through the building and exited out the back. He traced along the wall until he found the window he wanted and carefully peeked through the glass. He was right, Vesni was bound, but she was not gagged. The long-haired Southerner was standing in front of her and she screamed furiously at him.

"Don't lie to me, Jackass!" she cried. "You expect me to believe that you're some kind of under-cover FBI agent or something!?"

"I don' expect anythin' from ya," the man said. Now that Mello could see the man's face, he recognized the man as Skinner, a member who had been with the mafia for several months and was now one of their top members. What was going on? "I just came ta say that I'm 'ere ta help ya in any way that I can."

Vesni was obviously not buying it. "Oh, bullshit! Just tell me why you took me here in the first place!" Skinner was about to answer when the red-head cut him off. "And don't' you tell me it's just because the 'boss wants to have a little chat with me', I already heard that one. Give me the fucking truth!"

The Southerner let out a deep sigh. "Very well, I'll tell ya the truth. The boss's using ya ta get ta Mello. 'E knows abou' ya two and 'e says that Mello's too valuable ta lose ta the likes of ya and plans on using ya to lure 'im 'ere."

It looked like Vesni frowned and then turned her head away. "Humph, I don't know who this Mello you're talking about is and there certainly is nothing between us." She was obviously trying to cover her tracks.

Skinner just shrugged. "A recorded conversation in yer car from yesterday begs to differ, as do these photographs." He pulled a few pictures out of his pants pocket and tossed them at Vesni's feet. She looked down at them, then, as if disgusted, averted her eyes and kicked the pictures away from her.

"Get these disgusting things out of my sight," she said, sounding revolted. Mello could not see exactly what was on them, but he could see the color theme. They were of a dark and light blue and he came to the conclusion that they were taken the night before of he and Vesni in the swimming pool.

"That sick bastard!" the scarred blonde hissed under his breath.

Skinner bent down and picked up the photos. He stuffed them in his pocket once again. "I wasn' the one who took these, just so ya know." The red-head refused to look at the man as he turned to leave. "I'm 'ere ta 'elp ya, Vesni. Just give me some time." That said, he opened the door and left, leaving Vesni alone to linger over what was going to become of her.

Mello stepped back from the window and gripped the handle of his gun tighter than before. "Assholes!" he hissed. "So I'm too valuable to lose, huh? Well, it's too late, you've already lost me."

"Have we, now?" a voice asked from behind the blonde. Mello turned around to come face-to-face with a tall, bulky, dark-haired man. He held a gun to the blonde's chest, his finger poised over the trigger. The blonde glared at Dex with loathing and slowly aimed his gun at the dark-haired man without his noticing.

"Yes, you have." Dex's finger squeezed the trigger of his own gun threateningly. His eyebrows knitted together in a frown. "I've had it with you people. I'm gone."

"We'll see about that." He motioned with the barrel of his gun for Mello to walk to the front of the building. "The boss knew you'd come and he's dying to talk to you."

The scarred blonde had no intention of talking with Gordon Jet about anything. The only time he wanted to see his old boss was when he was good and dead. Quickly, Mello pulled the trigger of his silenced pistol and shot bulky Dex in the left shin. The man cried out in pain and anger and fell to the grassy ground, his hand holding his leg as if it would help with the pain. The blonde took that opportunity to make a run for it. As soon as he heard Dex scream in agony, he bolted in the direction of his idling motorcycle. Gunshots rang out from behind him and a bullet whizzed by his head, narrowly missing his right ear. After two shots were fired, he heard a voice that sounded like Skinner yell at Dex.

"Stop yer shootin'! The boss wants 'im alive!" One more shot was fired and a sudden and sharp pain shot through Mello's left forearm. He looked down to see blood dripping out of his forearm from a round bullet wound. The pain was excruciating and he was not looking forward to driving his motorcycle all the way back to his home.

"Dammit!" Mello swore through gritted teeth. Now that he thought about it, he could not return to his house, they would find him there and bring him back kicking and screaming. He arrived back at his motorcycle, pulled his helmet over his head, squeezed the clutch painfully, shifted into gear, and took off down the road. Once he was moving, he did not need the clutch to shift so he rode with one hand, his shot-up arm resting on his lap as he sped off down the highway. What could he do? He could not go to a hospital, they'd ask too many questions and he would soon have the police breathing down his neck. A regular doctor's clinic would not help either; they did not delve into things such as bullet wounds. _What about William? He knows how to deal with these things. _Mello sighed. _He'll have to do._ Making up his mind, the scarred and wounded blonde drove with haste back to his neighborhood to see an old friend.

--

Enrique Rojas, Wammy's alias William, slowly and groggily woke up to the sound of his doorbell ringing at five thirty in the morning. Confused and wondering who on earth would be at his door at that insane hour, he ran a hand through his thick, black hair and forced himself to crawl out of bed and stagger to the door in a half-awake stupor to answer it and stop the incessant ringing. Arriving at his front door, he yelled at his German Sheppard to stop barking, lightly kicked it away and unlocked the door.

"Shut up, Kal, and get out of the way!" Once the dog was away from the path of the swinging door, William cracked to door open to see who it was that was waking him up ungodly early on his day off. His eyes widened and he woke up a small bit when he saw the pained face of Mello standing on his doorstep. "What the hell are you doing here?" he asked as he opened the door all the way and stepped aside to let the scarred blonde in his home.

"Spare me the lecture, Will, and help me out would you?" Mello walked inside, shut the door and locked it behind him. "And I would appreciate it if you would not tell anyone that I was here."

William nodded. "What can I help you with?" he asked. Mello frowned and released his hand from his left forearm, showing his friend the bullet wound just below his elbow. "Good God, what happened to you?"

"Just fix it, would you? I had to drive at least ten miles on a motorcycle to get here with this and it hurts like hell!" Mello glared at the Spaniard who shrugged and motioned for the blonde to follow him into the house. The burned ex-mafia member followed his old friend into the living room and sat down on the couch when the Spaniard asked him to. William left the room for a few minutes and came back holding a first-aid kit. First thing was first; the bullet had to be removed. It took several minutes of pure pain and gritted teeth for the small piece of metal to be removed from his flesh and Mello had to grip the seat and bite onto a pillow to keep himself from screaming.

The cleaning process was not as painful, but it still stung. When William was finished, he rubbed the wound with medicine and wrapped it with gauze to keep the bleeding at a minimum. "There you go, all done." The Spaniard stared at the wrapped bullet wound for a few seconds before asking, "By the way, how did you get that?"

Mello sighed. He knew that question was coming and there was no way to avoid it. Taking a deep breath, he looked William right in the eyes and said, "Don't be angered or scared at what I'm about to tell you, understand?" He was demanding the dark-haired man, not asking a favor. The Spaniard nodded and Mello continued. "You remember when you asked me what I did for a living when I first got here." William nodded. "And I told you that I worked as a businessman?"

"Yeah, I remember that. I never believed you."

The blonde ignored his friend's remark and continued. "Well, in a sense, I was telling the truth." The dark-haired Spaniard looked completely lost at this point and made that clear to Mello.

"What do you mean?"

"The business I work for is the mafia," the blonde stated flatly. William's jaw dropped open and he gapped at Mello.

"What!?"

The scarred blonde shrugged. "Or should I say, 'used to' work for. Something happened, I told them I'd had enough and now they're after my head."

William glanced down at Mello's cleaned bullet wound and put the pieces together in his head. "So that wound is from them."

Nodding, the blonde stood up from where he sat and walked around the couch and back to the front door. "I just came from the hideout and they trashed my house so I have no place to go."

"You need a place to stay? You could stay here for a bit."

Mello shook his head. "No, I need to get as far away from this place as possible. I'll find some hotel or something to stay at until I can straighten things out." He was about to open the front door when his friend said something that he had not expected to hear in a million years.

"Near's looking for you," William stated suddenly.

The scarred blonde paused, his hand on the door knob ready to turn and open the door. He turned around and stared blankly at the Spaniard. "Near?" he asked angrily. The dark-haired man nodded. "Where is he?"

William shook his head. "I have no idea. I got a call from him yesterday around three o'clock stating that he needed you for a case, or something along those lines."

Mello smiled and turned back to the door, opening it and walking out onto the front porch. "Thanks, William." That said, he slammed the door shut and walked back to his motorcycle, smiling sadistically. _Near needs my help, huh? __Well, this is certainly a change of events, isn't it? _

--

Five weeks later, Vesni woke up in the storage room early in the morning to an unhappy stomach. She was feeling really queasy, tipping her head over to her side, she began to dry heave a few times before she hurled up the contents of her stomach on the cold, concrete floor. She stared at it for a moment before dismissing it as the disgusting slop they had fed her for dinner the night before. But after several more mornings of throwing up on the floor, she began to think that something was wrong with her.

Skinner walked in to check on her and almost immediately noticed the vomit spread around the red-head. "What the hell?" he asked no one in particular.

"Don't ask because I have no idea," Vesni replied sarcastically. The hick stared down at her and saw that she looked rather sickly.

"I better get you a doctor," he said, turning around to leave.

Vesni did not want any more people aside from Skinner in the room with her and immediately tried to stop him. "Don't bother. Those mafia docs'll most likely diagnose me poorly and I'll die of an overdose of a drug I don't even need."

The hick rolled his eyes and opened the door. "Don't get your hopes up, Vesni," he said. "Our doctor is actually really good." He then slipped out of the room and shut the door with a loud bang.

Vesni sighed after the long-haired man left. She had a feeling she knew what was wrong with her; she just hoped desperately that she was wrong.

--

"Enjoy your stay with us, Mister Phillips," the receptionist of the Hampton Inn in San Diego said after Mello had checked out a room on the fourth floor. The blonde rolled his eyes and pressed the "up" button for the elevator to take him up to his floor. _Yeah, yeah, yeah. _The scarred blonde had been in and out of different hotels passing off as different names for the past several weeks to shake the mafia off his tail and this time, he checked in as one Trevor Phillips from Minnesota. He would only be at the Hampton for a few days and in that time, he had to find out where Near was. The past few weeks, he had been looking for Vesni's name, finally found it, and then moved to searching for Near.

Entering the room, he decided to start by calling his old orphanage. L had stayed there when he was not working on any cases, which was rare, but it was worth a shot. Tossing his bag on the floor, he sat on the end of the bed and took out his cell phone. He flipped it open and dialed the long telephone number that would take him to the Wammy's House in Winchester England. Mello waited as the phone rang a few times before a female voice answered.

"Wammy's Orphanage." Something sounded familiar about the voice but he could not quite place it so he shook it off and got straight to business.

"Yeah, can I speak to the caretaker?" he said, sounding demanding.

"I'm Linda, the caretaker of the Wammy's House, may I ask who's calling?" The girl on the other line sounded rather bored.

Mello's eyes widened. Linda? Linda was the new caretaker for Wammy's? No wonder she sounded familiar to him, he grew up with her. "Linda!? It's me, Mello! Do you know where Near is?"

The young woman's next words were filled with surprise. "Mello!? I thought you disappeared off the face of the earth! What happened to you?"

The blonde sighed and touched his burn scars, recalling, angrily, how he got them. "Never mind that, now where's Near?"

She sighed. "I'm not sure, I think he said something about a mob in southern California." She paused for a moment, as if trying to remember. "I think it was San Diego, or was it LA? I don't really remember but he did say that he and Roger were checking into hotels under the name of Lance Overbey. Sorry I can't be of more help."

Mello sighed and gripped his room's key card. "Thank you, Linda. You're actually a big help."

"Why do you want to know?" she asked, sounding curious over the phone.

"Oh, no reason." He stood up, grabbed a bar of chocolate off the nightstand, and walked over to the door, about to leave. "William just told me he was looking for me." That said, he walked out of the hotel room and snapped his phone shut. "San Diego or LA, huh?" he muttered to himself as he strode down the hallway to the elevator. "Knowing Near, if he's looking for me, he would have already narrowed down my whereabouts to San Diego, so he's most likely here in this city." Just as he arrived at the elevator, the doors opened and a short, pudgy man passed Mello as he walked out of the small, iron box. The blonde ignored the stares the man gave his burn scars when they walked past each other and pressed the button inside the elevator that led him to the ground floor and the front lobby.

He strode over to the receptionist and asked his question. "Excuse me; did a young man by the name of Lance Overbey check into this hotel?"

--

Mello stood outside of room 316, his chocolate bar halfway to his mouth. This was the room that the receptionist had said that Lance Overbey had checked into the day before. It had been almost six years since he had come face to face, or rather face-to-back-of-head, with the small, albino kid. The blonde wondered if he looked the same as he did back then, or had he aged a bit? He took a quick bite out of his chocolate bar and shook away the thought. That did not matter now. The ex-mafia member needed the kid's help to save Vesni. He hated how he needed his rival's help for anything, but it could not be avoided; there was nothing Mello could do on his own.

Sucking up an immense amount of pride, he raised a black-leather gloved fist and rapped three times on the hotel room door. Voices could be heard from the other side but the blonde could not make out what they were saying. A few seconds later, the door was cracked open to reveal a face partial of Mello's old caretaker, Roger. The one eye that he could see widened in surprise before disappearing.

"Near, Mello's here," the scarred blonde heard the old man say. A voice came from inside the room that sounded a bit like "Let him in," and the door was opened and the old man appeared fully before Mello. "Mello, this is a surprise," the old man said as he stepped aside to let the blonde inside the room.

"That's a lie, Roger, and you know it," Mello said as he walked past the old man and right up to the small, white-haired kid sitting with one knee pulled to his chest on the floor of the room. The two glared at each other for quite some time, neither talking and neither showing what the other was thinking. Near had aged, just as the blonde had suspected. At age twenty-four, he no longer looked like he was ten years old, but more like he was fourteen. He was still rather pale and Mello concluded that he still refused to go outside and get some sun during the day.

"I've been expecting you, Mello," Near said. He still wore those oversized white pajamas he had worn five years ago, as usual.

The burned blonde in question narrowed his eyes. "I know."

"Tell me," the white-haired man began. "You've rented a room in this building, haven't you?"

Mello did not even have to ask how his rival knew that bit of information. "Yes, I suspected you would know that if you were in a room one floor below mine." He brought his chocolate bar to his mouth and broke off a large piece, letting it melt a bit in his mouth before chewing and swallowing. Deciding on getting right to business, he pocketed the candy bar and asked the question that had been bugging him for the past six weeks. "What did you want from me?"

A small smile graced the white-haired man's face as he looked up at the blonde. "Ah, so you did meet with William; as I thought."

"Yeah, and he said you needed my help," Mello hissed, his hands clenching into fists. This guy really challenged his temper. "With what is what I want to know."

Near stood up and walked into an adjacent room to the one they were standing in. He stopped at the doorway and motioned for Mello and Roger to follow him. They both obliged and when they entered the next room, they saw several monitors, surveillance feeds by the look of them, and several actions figures and other such toys spread out on the floor beneath the monitors. A computer sat on a coffee table between two armchairs with a screensaver of a Gothic letter L bouncing around the screen. "I've been working on a case to bring down a big mafia located just outside of this city for some time now. I have a man undercover with them now, but he hasn't been able to get high enough up in status with them to be helpful enough to bring them down. I need someone who was of great importance to them in order to bring them down." He sat down on one of the chairs and his eyes shifted to look at Mello standing next to him. "You should know everyone they traded with and what they traded, no?"

The blonde narrowed his eyes but answered the question regardless. "Yes, I do." He paused. "What does that have to do with taking them down?" So it was _his _mafia Near was targeting. He should have known.

"In order to bust the whole mafia, one must also take down each of its branches, otherwise it will continue to thrive and feed on the weak all over the world," the white-haired man stated philosophically. Near picked up one his toy cars and ran it over the coffee table in front of him. Suddenly, the screensaver on the laptop shut off and was replaced by a white screen with a black gothic letter S in the center.

"L," a voice that sound really familiar to Mello came through the speakers, addressing Near. Reaching a hand up to his white hair and twirling a small lock of it in his finger, Near pressed a button on the laptop and answered his caller.

"What is it, Skinner?" he asked, the voice scrambler disguising his voice from the man on the other line. Mello stared at the screen, bewildered. So the man was telling the truth when he spoke to Vesni; he was an undercover agent.

Skinner's Alabama accent resonated back through the speakers of the laptop. "I've just come from visitin' the girl. She doesn' seem ta be well, so I've requested a doctor for 'er. I've not gotten the results yet, but I'll contact ya when I do get 'em." Mello wanted to burst out screaming at the agent. What was wrong with her? How long had she been sick? But when he opened his mouth, Near put up a hand to silence him and asked the question in his stead.

"What symptoms is she showing?"

There was a sigh and then the hick answered L's successor. "I walked in her holding cell this morning and noticed vomit stains around her body. She appears to be having stomach problems."

Near was silent for a long time before he spoke again. "Thank you. Please, keep in touch and continue to help her." The white-haired kid glanced at the scarred man next to him and added in, "And give her hope of rescue."

"Very well, I'll get back ta ya as soon as I can." That said, the screen went black and he was gone. The room was silent for some time before Near turned around and faced Mello, his face emotionless. The blonde frowned at the twenty-four-year-old in front of him. The white-haired man in front of him continued to twirl a lock of his hair in his finger and said nothing for what seemed like hours before talking again.

"I take it she was the reason you even actually considered coming here to see me, am I correct?" He was completely serious and Mello hated that. He just wanted to wrap his hands around the little kid's neck and strangle his life out. He refrained from doing so and just nodded his affirmation. Near looked up at him as if questioning his answer. "Very well," he said before taking a pause. "Mello, will you help me on this case?"

The blonde glared down at his rival, questioning his request. Was he actually serious? He had to be, he never joked around. It was not in his character to joke. After several minutes of silence, he sighed and gave Near his answer. "Alright, what do I have to do?"

**A/N: Mello pobably had to swallow a LOT of pride to do that, huh? Again, sorry if this is boring. I really tried to keep it interesting while writing it was rather boring. Did I do a good job on Skinner's accent? I'm debating on whether I did or not... Oh well, another chapter done and only a few more to go! Thanks for sticking with me, my peeps!! **

**If you don't review, that just tells me that you WANT to have your head chopped off and fed to the wolves, your arms ripped off and tossed in a shredder, your legs sawed off and given to the lions to feast on, and finally, whatever is remaining of your torso tossed to the sharks for a feeding fenzy! **

**If you don't want THIS to happen, then I suggest you REVIEW!! I only got like two reviews for the last chapter for Fuck's sake!! Get your act together people!!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Good lord! This is the most I've ever written on a story!! I can't believe it! Anyway, there will be one more chapter after this and then an epologue. We're almost done! Hooray!!**

Part 9 Troubled Bastard

"_I love you, I hate you, I can't live without you. I wrap my head around your heart. Why would you tear my world apart?" –Always by Saliva_

Mello put his pencil back on the desk in his hotel room and picked up the paper he had been writing on, folded it up, and stuck it in the back pocket of his black, leather pants. He angrily stood up and walked out of the room, his key card in his pocket. He could not believe he was swallowing all his pride just to save a girl who did not care for him in slightest; he was also surprised with the _amount _of pride he did actually swallow. The blonde didn't know he was so high on himself to have shoved aside so much of his arrogance and actually work with Near.

Walking to the elevator, he pushed the "Down" button, waited for the lift to arrive, then stepped inside when it did. He pressed the button that would lead him to the third floor; to the room where Near was. A few seconds later, the elevator came to a stop and Mello stepped out onto the floor below his own room. He walked down a couple of halls until he stood in front of room 316. Knocking three times, he waited for Roger to open the door and the burned blonde invited himself in once again.

"I have your list, Near," he spat at the white-haired twenty-four-year-old sitting on the floor in the adjacent room. Near set down an action figure of Batman and extended his hand out to blonde without tearing his eyes away from the monitors; asking for him to hand him the list. Mello angrily shoved his hand in his back pocket and pulled out the folded piece of paper. He slapped it in the hand of L's successor who unfolded it and read it over amazingly fast.

"These are all the people the mafia traded with and what they traded?" he asked, confirming what was on the paper.

Mello nodded. "Yes, they are," he answered, narrowing his eyes. "You don't trust me?" He extended a hand out to Roger who placed a chocolate bar in his hand. The scarred blonde ripped off the wrapping and bit off a large chunk, chewed it, and then swallowed.

"I never said that," the white-haired albino man said without emotion. He still did not look at the angry ex-mafia member standing above him. "Watari." Roger hustled over to Near who handed the paper to the former Wammy's caretaker. "Take this and find where each of these people are located, please?" The old man nodded and left the room. Once he was gone, the twenty-four-year-old turned his gaze from the monitors to Mello. "The girl was not on the list," he stated matter-of-factly.

_Nice observation skills, Near, _the blonde thought sarcastically. No, he had not put Vesni on the list. Why? Because they already knew where she was, that's why. She was the reason why he was working with Near in the first place. If she had not been taken by the mafia in the first place, he would not be there at all. He frowned. "No, she wasn't." He was not in the mood to explain why, but he did not have to.

"I thought you would leave her out," Near commented. "Why you did is no question that I need an answer to." He stood up and walked over to a table with several blue prints scattered about the surface. "Skinner has not told me everything and I'll need you to help me with that." The white-haired kid sat down with his knee pulled to his chest once again in an armchair in front of the table. He gestured for Mello to do the same. "I'd like to know where in the hide out the girl is located. I do believe you know this."

Mello was silent for several minutes. He glared at Near and the entire time, L's successor sat patiently waiting for the blonde's answer. He sat down across from his rival and uncovered a set of blueprints from underneath the pile, pointing to a large square in the southeast corner of the building that indicated some sort of storage room. "Here," he said, not taking his eyes off Near. "She's in this room."

Near stared at the blueprint as if it would come to life and he would be standing in the middle of the storage area. He then looked up at Mello and smiled. "I think it's time to start planning."

--

Mello lay on his back on his hotel bed. His right arm was outstretched above him and he studied his hand as if it were a new discovery. His gloves lay forgotten on the bedside table and he flexed his fingers, his mind somewhere other than the room he was in. Tomorrow; tomorrow was the day he could get Vesni back. He wanted her back, yes, but did she want him to rescue her? He could never be sure with the red-head. She was confusing; at one point she wants nothing to do with him, then she acts like she does not care if he has her, and then she is back to wanting him gone. She just goes in a circle every time he is around her. He imagined her sitting in the storage cell alone with nothing but rats, vomit and Skinner as company. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to get her out of there. Near already said that he would let her and the blonde walk if he was willing to help with the rest of the investigation, but Mello was unsure about it. Near had a tendency to hold back the truth; just like their predecessor, L.

The burned former mafia member turned his head and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. 10:58; Near should be talking with Skinner by now. The plan was for Mello and Skinner to go in with the SWAT team that was to meet them at the off-ramp of the highway, take as many mafia members as they could alive, and grab Vesni in the process. However, the first thing they had to do was get to Vesni. The room she was in was also the arsenal. Every bit of firepower the mafia had was in that room. If they did not get there in time, the whole plan would be foiled. If the mafia got there first, the explosives contained in that room would destroy everything within a twenty meter radius of the building, including the building itself. Everything depended on that one room, that one person, and Mello found it troubling.

He sighed. There was no sense in brooding about the whole ordeal. All there was left to do now was prepare for what lay ahead. The scarred blonde got up off the bed and headed for the bathroom. He had just taken a shower that morning and for some reason he felt like he was filthy, like he had a layer of grime and dirt on every inch of his skin. Turning the knob of the shower, the water sprayed out of the shower head and he stripped his clothes off. He grabbed a towel off the rack on a wall next to the mirror and when the water was hot enough, he stepped in and immediately wet his hair. Taking the small shampoo bottle, he unscrewed the cap and poured the soap onto his palm and rubbed it into his long, blonde hair. Once he felt that his hair was good and clean, he rinsed out the suds under the spray of the water then grabbed the bar of soap from its tiny little shelf, rubbed it everywhere over his scarred and unscarred skin. After rinsing the soap off his body, he turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. Grabbing his towel, he dried off, wrapped the towel around his waist and walked out of the bathroom.

The only clothes Mello put on were his boxers. He threw the towel in a corner of the room and walked up to one of the few mirrors placed around the room. He studied his scarred face. It had been a long time since he had shaved and facial hair half an inch long was sprouting from his chin and upper lip. He sighed; because of his burn scar on the left side of his face, facial hair looked dreadful on him. Of course he never cared for it anyway, but it just got worse after he got burned for the first time six years ago. He really should have learned his lesson about the mafia back then, but no, of course not. He had to go and screw his life up for the second time.

Going back into the bathroom, he took a razor and a bottle of shaving cream out of his bag and cut off the hair that messed up his face more than the scar did. Finishing up, he cleaned off the razor, wiped his face off with a hand towel, and returned to the room. Mello pulled back the curtains from the window and stared down at the parking lot below him. He spotted his black Kawasaki 500 and several possibilities for what could happen the next day ran through his mind. He could die, Vesni could die, Skinner could die; they could fail and everyone could die, or they could succeed, everyone lives and Vesni is returned to him; they get off free from the mafia and the law, and everyone is happy. Either way, Vesni would probably never forgive him for what he did to her, but that no longer matter to him. All Mello cared about now was the red-head's safety. He was going to save her no matter what happened. Even if they both got arrested afterwards, he was going to get her out of there.

He heaved another sigh and closed the curtains. He pulled back the covers of his bed and crawled in intent on getting a good night's sleep before he had to risk his life. Right before he fell asleep the last thing that ran through his mind was, _have patience, Vesni. We're coming. _

--

Again, Vesni awoke the next morning to an upset stomach. Leaning to her side, she hurled up her insides and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She no longer wondered why she was feeling sick. The doctor had told her several weeks ago. When she heard what was wrong with her, she gapped disbelieving at the doctor but knew it was not entirely impossible.

She sighed and leaned against a box that had black letters spray painted on the side that read "Danger: Highly Flammable". She had been told that five weeks ago, right after she had been taken, Mello had come to get her but was shot at by a man named Dex and ran off; a bullet in his arm. She figured that the wound had healed by now and wondered what took him so long to come back. If he had come for her before, why not try again? Of course, she also wished that he would not come. They had taken her as bait for him and she worried what they would do to him if came. She wanted him to come and yet she did not. The red-head could not make up her mind.

Vesni hated Mello for leaving her there with these thugs. She hated him because he was the reason she was there, the reason she was bound, stuffed in a storage room and fed stomach-churning slop every day. She leaned her head back and hit the wooden box she sat against. Another boring day of sitting in the dank room with rats and her vomit lay ahead of her. She was so bored she was ready to strangle herself with her bonds to ease the boredom.

She had no way of telling what time it was; the only sense of time she had was the sun shining through the window above her and her disgusting meals that Skinner had brought to her every day. She knew it was early morning because the sun was just barely up and birds had just begun to chirp out of her window. She had thought about trying to escape through the window, but her feet were bound as well as her hands behind her back and there was no way she could climb up the boxes with tied ankles and make a break for the woods. She had no choice but to sit, bored to tears, and wait for someone to come and get her.

Suddenly, the door to her cell slammed open and the meanest thug of them all, the boss Gordon Jet, stormed in and grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, and lifted her off the ground. He was really angry and it showed through his voice and his face when he screamed at her. "You and your boyfriend have really done it now!" Saliva flew out of his mouth and landed on Vesni's face. She wrinkled her nose in disgust but Jet seemed not to notice. "You're coming with me, you bitch!" Taking out a knife from a sheath on the front of his belt, he cut the bonds around her ankles and forced her out the door.

The red-head was confused. What was going on? "He's not my boyfriend!" she growled. "I don't even like him!" Was that statement true? Vesni did not know but she was unwilling to think about it. At the moment she was too preoccupied with what was happening.

"Shut up and get moving!" Jet gabbed her tied wrists and shoved her forward. She staggered a bit before regaining her footing and began walking forward. She felt the barrel of a gun against her spine and knew immediately that she had to do as he told her if she did not want to die. The entire time, only one question ran through her mind. _What is going on?_

--

Mello woke up early the next morning to the sound of an annoying beep right next to his head. Slowly, he opened his eyes to stare right at the red digits of the alarm clock in his hotel room. The clock read 5:15 am. He groaned. Why did they have to start so early in the day? Groggily, he crawled out from underneath the covers and slowly put on a black, long-sleeved T-shirt to cover his large, ugly burn scar on his arm and a dark pair of jeans. He slipped a pair of socks over his feet and as he was lacing up his black leather boots, he heard a knock on his door. Wondering who on earth would be at his room so early in the morning, he finished tying the laces of his boots and walked over to the door. Clicking the chain at the top of the door into its hook on the wall, he cracked the door open and peered through the two inch gap at the smiling face of Skinner.

"Mornin', partner," he said cheerfully, too cheerfully for so early in the morning. "Are ya ready ta head out?"

Mello glared at the man for few seconds before shutting the door, taking the chain out of its hook, and opened it again, wider this time, to let the southerner in. "What are you doing here?" the blonde asked after he shut the door. "Aren't you supposed to be at the hide out?"

Skinner sat down on the end of the bed as Mello busied himself with packing up his small amount of possessions into a duffel bag. "I left last night on L's request. My room's just down the hall from here." He stopped as Mello stuffed a pair of leather pants into the bag and zipped it up. "He also said that ya were workin' for him now. I suppose that's true."

The blonde frowned at the mention of him working for L; or in this case, L's successor and Mello's childhood rival; he really did not like the idea. Walking into the bathroom, he grabbed his razor, toothbrush, tooth paste, and shaving cream and shoved them into a side pocket of the duffel back. He walked back out into the room and grabbed his motorcycle helmet off the desk. "Somewhat," was all he said after grabbing his room key and putting it in his back pocket along with his wallet that held his driver's license. He walked out the door and Skinner followed. They headed down to lobby where Mello checked out of the hotel as Trevor Phillips and they walked out into the parking lot towards the black Kawasaki. The southerner stared at the motorcycle as if it would jump to life and eat him alive. "Sorry, I only have one helmet," Mello began. "Do you want it or-?" He cut his sentence short when he saw Skinner's face. "What's wrong with you?" he asked irritably. The scarred blonde was really not in the mood for this type of thing at the moment.

"I just…" he trailed. "Don't like motorbikes." Mello rolled his eyes and handed the man his helmet.

"Then you get the helmet." He swung his leg over the seat and started up the engine. "Now stop being a pussy and get on." Truth be told, Mello did not care whether the FBI agent would rather walk or not; he was going to save Vesni with or without Skinner if he had to.

The southerner really had no choice. Putting on the helmet, he climbed onto the motorcycle behind Mello and hung on tight to his waist so he would not fall off. The blonde drove out of the parking lot and onto the San Diego streets. He turned a few corners until he sped up onto the highway and he had to tell Skinner to loosen his grip around his waist several times before they exited the city and left the highway on the first off-ramp out of the town. Mello stopped at the end of the road and turned off the Kawasaki. Skinner had a death grip on the blonde's waist and refused to let go and Mello had to practically pry the man's hands apart to get him off.

"For fuck's sake, Skinner," the scarred blonde exclaimed. "You can handle the FBI, but you can't handle a simple motorcycle?" The long-haired man just shrugged and pulled the helmet off his head. The two waited by the motorcycle for ten minutes until the SWAT team arrived and outfitted them in Kevlar and gave them both rifles to prepare for the raid. When they got ready to leave, Skinner happily climbed into the back of one of the SWAT trucks while Mello got right back on his Kawasaki 500 and led the way to the mafia hide out.

When they were four hundred meters from the building, Mello pulled his motorbike off to the side of the road and turned it off. The SWAT trucks fallowed suit and the team unloaded their gear from the back of the trucks; then, as soon as the sun began to peek over the horizon, the assault began.

**A/N: Oooooo, what's going to happen during the raid, I wonder. Stick with me people, we're almost done! In the next chapter, we get to know why Vesni's sick! So review if you want to read it!**

**You're such a pansy, Skinner! Motorcycles are FUN!! Of course, it is true that it's not as scary if you're the one driving, but oh well...he doesn't need to know that. Sssshhhhh! You didn't hear it from me!**

**Review, you Fucktards! (pardon my language) But seriously, review! I like to see what exactly people like about my work. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Okay, this is the last chapter and then we have an epologue coming. I hope you enjoy this chapter a lot! I had fun writing it!**

Part 10 Fighting Bastard

"_Cold, I loved you from the very first night; you broke me till the day that I die. I'm far too obvious this time." –Cold (But I'm Still Here) by Evan's Blue_

The SWAT team split into two teams, one with Mello leading and the other with Skinner leading. Skinner's group entered through the front while Mello's group circled around to the back. The plan was to surround them so no one could escape. There were only two entrances to the building, all others were blocked off, and so there was no way for any of the mafia members to escape even if they tried. The scarred blonde was reminded of six years before, when the Japanese task force had raided his mafia hide out during the Kira case. It was Mello's first big loss and he still bore the scar to remember it by.

His team stationed themselves next to the back door of the building and waited for the signal from the other team. Once they heard the explosion signaling that Skinner's team had blown open the front door and any men who had been guarding it, Mello waved for the men who followed him to enter. The locked door was kicked open by a large, muscular man and each of the SWAT members marched in through the doorway two at a time, Mello in the lead.

The blonde led them through the building as if the place were his own house. He knew each corridor, each room, and he almost did not need to use his eyes to know where he was going. They turned a corner and entered a room with two thugs that seemed to be lounging around doing nothing. When the team entered the room, they stopped talking and looked up into the barrels of standard issue rifles. Quickly, they grabbed their own guns and attempted to defend their ground. However; just as they were squeezing their triggers, the SWAT team was faster. Before they could fire even one bullet, the team opened fire and shot the two cons in the side. They were injured, but they would live to see a trial.

One of the men on the team, a man that went by Captain Mitchell Erikson, picked up his radio and hailed the other team. "Lieutenant, we have two in custody," he stated as two of the team members slapped hand cuffs on the cons' wrists. "How many more are there?" He took his thumb off the button on the radio and waited for the reply.

"According to the information Skinner and Mello gave us," the Lieutenant answered through the speaker. "We have ten more, excluding the three that we've caught and the boss, Gordon Jet." The radio crackled and the Captain paused, contemplating what they could do before calling the Lieutenant back.

"Thanks Lieutenant," he said. "Meet us by the storage cell when you're done. Captain out." He stuffed the radio back on his vest clip and turned to his team. "Alright men, we keep moving." He turned to the burned ex-mafia member. "Mello, you lead the way." The blonde nodded and waved a hand, indicating for the men to follow him. They obliged and the team headed down another hallway, the captain and Mello up front.

After checking a few more rooms without finding any more cons, they finally came across a big room with a couch, several computers, a couple of swivel chairs, and a few armchairs. About six mafia thugs sat around the room and, oddly enough, did not seem to notice the SWAT team that had just entered their midst. After a few seconds of silence, the Captain yelled out for each of them to stop what they were doing and put their hands in the air. The Black Market dealers however, refused to go down that easily. Some of them tried to make a run for it but were shot in the feet and fell to the ground, screaming in agony, and the others attempted to put up a fight just as the first two had, but just like the first two, they, too, failed and were shot with the intention of injuring to stop them as well. While the team was cuffing the cons, the captain's radio crackled and the lieutenant's voice resonated through the speakers once again.

"Captain, we've just nabbed three of them here on the East wing. How many more are there?" Captain Mitchell Erikson grabbed his radio off his vest and replied to the hasty Lieutenant.

"Now, only the boss and one more guy," he said with a small smile on his face. "We've just captured six. Leave some men to watch over the criminals and meet us at the storage cell. The last two should be with the girl."

"Yes, Captain," the Lieutenant said before turning off the radio, leaving the men in the room with only static. The Captain turned off his own radio and placed it back on his vest. "Alright men," he began. "We're almost done." He gestured to three of the men in the group. "You three, stay here and watch these guys, the rest of you, follow me." They all nodded and left the room, running down several corridors, Mello in the lead again, and finally arriving in front of the storage room in which Vesni was held. The only problem was, the big, metal door was unlocked and open. They looked inside cautiously and noticed that it was empty, devoid of any human life.

"Spread out, men," the Captain ordered. "They might be hiding behind some of the crates." Carefully, the team entered the room, spreading out and searching each part of the room at one time. After finding nothing, they turned around to see that their numbers had diminished by one. "Where's Mello?" the Captain asked, sounding worried. A few of his men shrugged, not knowing.

"He was here a minute ago," one of them piped up from the front of the room by the door. "He must have run off while we were searching the room."

Captain Mitchell Erikson ground his teeth in annoyance. "Damn that man!" He ran out the door and down the corridor. "Follow me, men!" That said, they all followed their captain and ran off down the hall in search of the scarred blonde.

--

Mello stood at the doorway of the storage room and watched the team search fruitlessly for Gordon Jet and Vesni. He knew they were not in there. If the door was open and the place seemed empty, then they were not there. After a few minutes of watching them search the room, he decided he would make better time finding Vesni if he just left and searched for her himself. Making sure that no one was watching him, he turned and ran back down the hallway. He had a feeling he knew where they were and he could not believe that he had not thought about it before. The building also had an escape tunnel that ran a few miles underground and came out near the sea by a cave in the side of a cliff. If the boss got to the cave before they did, they would have lost the fight immediately. That cliff cave was too large to actually send in a search team and the boss could stay in there for several days before he had to come out again. Mello knew what he had to do and that was get to Vesni and Jet before they reached the cave.

He came across a set stairs that led below the ground and immediately ran down them, taking each step two at a time. He had no time to lose, once he reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned to his left only to see his former boss shoving the poor red-head down the tunnel several yards in front of him. Mello stopped in his tracks, his face contorting into a ghastly frown before he screamed at the man in front of him.

"Hey, Gordon!" The man in question stopped walking and turned around to face the man who had called his name. He still held Vesni in his grip and he smiled sadistically when he saw Mello standing at the base of the stairs. The mafia boss had a gun out and pointed at the red-head's right temple, his index finger just waiting to pull the trigger.

"Well, if it isn't the traitor," he laughed, tightening his hold on the girl he held in front of him. "Come back for your bitch?" He knew it would anger Mello and his smile broadened when he saw the ugly scowl on the blonde's face.

"Shut the fuck up, Gordon!" the blonde hissed. "Let her go!"

Jet smirked and bent his head down, sniffing Vesni's red hair. "Oh, I think not." Mello hated the disgusted look she let cross her face when she felt the man's face nuzzle into her hair. He wanted to brutally murder the man who held her, wanted to hack off all of his limbs, mail each piece to a different part of the world, and throw his torso into the sea and create a shark feeding frenzy. His hate towards 

his former boss was that strong. "However," Jet piped up, making Mello look at him, confused. "If you do a few things, I might reconsider it."

The long-haired blonde tightened his grip on his rifle and pointed the end in the general direction of the big man. His aim was not really good when it came to rifles. Mello wished he was allowed a hand gun, or something smaller, but he had to make do with what he got. Jet did not know that he had bad aim with a rifle; he thought that the blonde's aim was true no matter what weapon he wielded. Thanks to that, Mello got the upper hand by threatening. "What are you thinking, Gordon?" he growled.

The mafia boss's smirk deepened and Mello had a feeling he knew what the man was thinking. "Drop you weapon first." He knew it; the man was going to kill him and make off with the girl. He frowned, his hands not moving. Should he drop it? If he did, he could try and stall for time and wait for the rest of the SWAT team to find them, but that might result in Jet shooting Vesni. On the other hand, if he did not drop it, he had a high chance of killing Vesni in the process of trying to save her, but he also had a chance to rescue her as well. He could not think straight; seeing the red-head in front of him practically standing at Death's doorstep clouded his mind. He stared at her, she looked frightened but she was not crying. She was strong, he knew that, but could she save herself when he was gone? That was the big question he was asking himself.

"Don't do it!" Vesni cried out for the first time since he got down there. She glared at him. "Ignore everything this fucker says to you!" Mello had thought that she was too scared to talk, but she proved him wrong once again. She always proved him wrong. Whenever he told himself that he hated her, she would pop up and change his whole way of thinking.

He made up his mind. Not taking his eyes off Gordon Jet for even a fraction of a second, Mello held the rifle out in front of him, turned the safety off, and dropped it to the ground at his feet. He held his hands up by his head and glared at the man holding the young woman. "You happy now?" he asked. Jet just gestured with his gun for the blonde to back up.

"Now step back from the gun several paces." Mello did as he was told. He counted each step he took and when he lost sight of the top of the stairs he had once stood next to, he stopped.

Still holding his hands in the air, he called out to his former boss. "How's this?"

Gordon did not get a chance to answer. Just after he asked for a confirmation, Vesni broke free of her captor's hold and ran towards Mello. He looked at the man, who had buckled over in pain with a knife thrust in his torso, point the gun in their direction before he ran after Vesni. He did not really know why, he just had to get to her. She was in danger and he had to save her. He did not even realize how far he had gone until two loud gun shots echoed through the tunnel.

--

Dex ran frantically through the corridors of the building. _Where are those blasted stairs? _He had just come from a run-in with his old partner and, he thought, friend, Skinner. The burly, dark-haired mafia thug had knocked the FBI agent senseless before he could turn around. Before the southerner knew what had hit him, he was knocked to floor and his rifle was yanked out of his hands by Dex.

The burly man ran past several rooms, narrowly missed getting seen by two SWAT members, and finally found the stairs he was looking for. His boss had asked him to meet him down in the tunnel and Dex thought that he was lucky enough to make it there without being seen. He bolted down the stairs, accidentally missing a few and nearly falling on his face before continuing on. When he reached the bottom, he was just in time to see Mello drop his gun and back up away from it as Jet had instructed. Dex readied his gun just in case it was needed and, just when Vesni and Mello were in his sight again, he took aim and fired.

Little did the burly man know that he had been followed.

--

The entire time Mello had been talking with Jet, Vesni had busied herself with removing the knife out of its sheath from the front of the man's belt without having him notice. She thought that it was stupid for the man to have his knife strapped to the front of his belt when his hostage had her hands tied behind her back and was positioned in front of him. She could easily grab a hold of it and free herself. His stupidity was her ticket out.

When the man who held her had bent down and sniffed her hair, she froze, thinking that she had been discovered, but when he pulled away, she was relieved to find that she was not. Vesni almost let out a sigh of relief, but refrained. If she did, she would surely give herself away. She knew that Mello was angry; she could definitely see it on his face. He hated Jet with a passion, that much she could tell. The blonde asked his former boss to let her go but the man refused unless Mello dropped his gun and backed away from it.

She had finally gotten the knife out of its sheath and proceeded to cut at her bindings. When she saw the scarred blonde hesitate to drop his weapon, she decided to play the strong hostage role and defy what her captor ordered. "Don't do it!" She was not going to sit back and let the bastard holding her have his way. "Ignore everything this fucker says to you!" Apparently, Mello ignored her remark and did as Jet instructed him. As the blonde began to back up away from his rifle, her bindings were almost cut completely off. Finally, after several minutes of sawing at the cloth that bound her wrists, she was free. It was either now or never. As soon as Mello asked if he was far enough away from his weapon, she gripped the handle of the knife and plunged the blade into the torso of the man holding her. He released her arm and she made a break for it. She was too intent on trying to get the gun that Mello had dropped to notice that he had left where he was standing and ran after her. She noticed only too late that a man was standing at the base of the stairs with his own rifle pointed at her. She froze in her tracks, staring wide-eyed down the barrel of the gun before she was shoved to the side and slammed the back of her head against the wall of the tunnel.

Vesni was dazed for a few seconds but she still heard two gun shots resonate around the walls of the tunnel. When her vision cleared, she looked down to see Mello sprawled out on the ground on his back, blood gushing out of a wound on the right side of his neck and under his left armpit. The man had taken the bullets for her! She screamed; she screamed so loud she could barely hear the last gunshot echo down the tunnel and did not notice when the man on the stares slumped forward and fell flat on his face, a bullet hole in his back.

She dropped to her knees next to the bleeding blonde at her feet. He was dying; it was too obvious the way he stared up at the ceiling as if he was not seeing anything at all. Everything had happened too fast. "It's all my fault." She blamed herself. If she had not stabbed Gordon Jet and ran after the gun on the ground, this would not have happened.

Vesni bent over Mello's face and placed her hands on the bullet wounds. His eyes shifted over to her and a small smile graced his scarred features. "V…ve…" He was having trouble speaking. Vesni felt tears gush out of her eyes and drip onto his skin. He couldn't be leaving, he just could not. A weak and bloody hand came up and rested on her tearstained cheek. "Ve…Veron…onica…" he forced out. Blood began to gurgle out of his mouth and he coughed weakly before growing quiet. She stared at him, completely baffled. What had he just called her? Suddenly, everything came flooding back to her. The hit to the head and hearing that name come out of Mello's lips triggered something in her brain that made all her memories flood back to her in one fell swoop.

"Yes," she said, sniffing. His smile did not leave but his hand fell off her face and landed with a soft thud on the ground next to him. "That's my name. You found it." She sobbed and tried to stop the bleeding but she might as well have tried to stop a cave from falling on top of her. He was fading fast and she had precious little time left with him. She still could not tell if she loved him or hated him, but she had something to say to him before he left her for good. "No!" she cried out. "You can't go! Not now!" She removed his helmet and tossed it aside. Brushing some of his blood-soaked hair out of his face, she continued to scream. "You can't go! You know why?" Her hand shook from her crying and he stared up at her as if she were to one dying, not him. "Because you're going to be a father, Mello! You're going to be a dad!" She saw his lips moving and, not being able to hear what he was saying, bent over to listen better.

"I…I lo…" He never finished what he was going say and that moment, his eyes rolled back into his head, he body went limp, and he shut his eyes. He was gone; nothing could bring him back now. The Kevlar that he was wearing was supposed to protect him; a whole lot of good that did. He was dead and nothing could help him. Vesni, now Veronica, Veronica Hughes, laid her forehead down on his chest and banged her fists against his lifeless body.

"No! Come back, you jackass! Come back!" She could not believe it that he was gone, would not believe it. She hated him for leaving her like that, yet liked how he sacrificed himself to save her. In the end, he had loved her after all, she just did not know if she ever returned that love. "You can't be gone! Come back!" Her tears stained his SWAT uniform and soaked her face. What was she supposed to do now? Mello was gone and she had no one; no friends, no family, no life. She now realized that she was nothing without Mello. She was no one.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and knew immediately who it was from the Alabama accent he gave off. "I'm sorry," was all he said.

"He's gone, Skinner," she sobbed without lifting her head off Mello's chest. "He's not coming back is he?" She heard a sad sigh come from behind her.

"No, he's not," he agreed. Veronica screamed into the wet fabric that she gripped tightly in her hands. Jet was dead, the man who was in the stairway was dead, and Mello was dead. It was over, everything was over. But now that it was over, what was she to do?

--

Veronica Hughes, once known as Vesni, stood outside in a grassy cemetery next to Skinner and stared down at the big, wooden casket that held Mello's empty shell. The FBI agent had chopped his hair off and looked completely different with two-inch long hair but he did look good. Tears flowed past Veronica's eyes while Skinner, also known as Scott Russell, gripped her hand tightly. She had finally accepted the fact that Mello was gone and had been making plans to take care of her baby in the future with the help of Skinner. He even asked to step in as its substitute dad, but the red-head had refused. The baby was Mello's and was not going to be anyone else's. She was going to raise it on her own; it was just something she felt like she had to do.

"Goodbye, Mello," she whispered as she set a single rose on top of the casket. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and forced herself to turn away. She could not stand to be near anything that remotely reminded her of the blonde anymore. Skinner let go of her hand and followed her out of the cemetery.

As she was walking back to her car, an old man with little white hair and thick eyebrows walked up to her and addressed her. "Miss Hughes?" he asked. She turned to him and nodded. "Would you mind sparing a few minutes to talk to my master?" She looked at Scott Russell who just shrugged.

"Who is your master?" she asked, sounding a bit suspicious.

The old man did not spare any time in answering. "He was an old childhood friend of Mello's and would like to know more about you."

Veronica sighed. She really did not want to but she also did not want to turn the man down. "Very well." She told Russell that she would meet up with him later and left with the old man. She was led to a fancy black car and the man opened the back door for her to enter. She obliged and ducked her head to crawl into the seat only to see a young boy with curly white hair who looked to be around the age of fourteen sitting in the seat next to her.

"Hello, Miss Hughes," the boy said. His voice was strangely low for someone who looked so young. "My name is Near, but most of the world refers to me as the great detective L." Veronica gapped at the kid. This was the great detective L? This young boy? She could not believe it.

"How come you're revealing yourself to me and not to Skinner?" she asked suspiciously.

The boy reached a hand up to his head and began to twirl a lock of his white hair in his finger. "You knew Mello," he said with no emotion. "Knew him well enough for him to tell you his real name." She stared at Near funny and he smiled. "Yes, I know you know, but that is irrelevant to why I wish to see you." The red-head could not believe this kid. How did he know that Mello had told her his real name? "What I want to know from you is how did you get to know Mello?" It was a simple and honest question, but Veronica wished he had picked a better time for him to ask. "Can you tell me this now, or should I wait?"

Veronica shook her head. "No, I'll tell you, but it will take a while." Near nodded and she began to tell her story from all the way back at the beginning.

**A/N: Alright, the entire time I was writing this fic, I kept saying that I couldn't wait to get to the end were Mello dies. I told my sister this and then immediately said, "I feel so terrible!" I do! I feel terrible for being impatient to kill off Mello. Oh well, if he was not killed by the Death Note, he had to die some other way, right? Who would have thought that it was to save a girl?**

**Yes, Skinner's real name is Scott Russell, and yes, he became Vesni's, or Veronica's, friend. **

**How's this, in your reviews, you can all guess on the gender of the kid, and for those of you who get it right you get a cookie! Sound good? You can add details of the kid's personality if you wish. So REVIEW you TWITS!! **

**Hoped you loved it! Tootles! **


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Okay, there is an ever-so-slight hint of NearxLinda in this chapter. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!! **

**Okay, I bet you all have been wondering so I'm just going to tell you. The three songs that have popped up at the beginning of every chapter are what I based the story off of. I was listening to them and just thought I'd right a story that related to them. Look them up! They are really good!! **

**Hooray! Last chapter!!**

Part 11 Fine

"_Die, withdraw, hide in cold sweat, quivering lips, ignore, remorse, naming a kid, living wasteland." –Wasteland by 10 Years_

Thirteen-year-old Teresa Hughes stared disbelieving at the white-haired man sitting on a chair with one knee to his chest in front of her. She opened and closed her mouth before she could actually get something out. The story he had just told her seemed so far-fetched she had trouble believing it. Her mother an ex-Black Market arms dealer? Yeah right, how could she be when her best friend was an FBI agent? Then again, the story she had been told did explain how Veronica Hughes and Scott Russell met, so it could not be all fiction.

"Is this true?" she asked. The white-haired man, who only looked to be twenty-years-old, twirled a lock of his hair in his index finger and nodded.

"Yes, it is true." A blonde haired woman walked up behind him and rested her hands on his shoulders. "Your mother told me the whole story, and of course, some of it is true seeing as I witnessed part of it."

"Near's right, Teresa," the blonde woman said. Near touched her fingers and she smiled down at him. "Your father did call me that day asking where Near was."

Teresa huffed and crossed her arms angrily. "But Miss Linda, it all sounds so stupid!" The Wammy's caretaker frowned at the girl's remark but remained silent. "I don't even know if my parents even loved each other!"

The white-haired man sighed and lowered his finger from his hair. "I can tell you this much, Teresa." She looked up at him, her eyebrows knitted together in an annoyed frown. "Your mother may never have said anything about it out loud, but it was apparent that she loved your father dearly." Linda nodded at the statement, agreeing. The young girl raised an eyebrow, something she had gotten from her mother. She was stubborn, easily angered, and could be mean if she felt like it. In a way, she was a lot like her father, Mello. Her mother had pointed that out to her several times and eventually got to get on Teresa's nerves at times.

"One thing is for certain," The blonde lady stated. The thirteen-year-old stared at her as if she were expecting some deep, dark secret that Near and Veronica had not told her.

"You are the spitting image of your father." It was Near who finished Linda's sentence.

Teresa huffed and growled. "Humph, I figured as much, considering I look nothing like my mom did." She paused for a moment before talking again. "I don't even know what he looked like. Mom never had any pictures of him, and I doubt you guys do either." Near glanced at Linda and, knowing exactly what he meant, pulled out a sketch book and some drawing pencils. Teresa stared at her in confusion, but when the face of a man began to show up on the paper, she understood. Near guided the woman by giving her descriptions of what Mello had looked like as man, including the burn scar and his unkempt blonde hair. When the drawing was complete, Linda ripped the page out of her sketch book and handed the paper to the young teenager in front of her.

"This is your father," she said matter-of-factly. "You have the same disheveled blonde hair, blue eyes, and angry demeanor. You look a lot like him." Teresa stared blankly at the paper in her hand, not knowing what to make of it.

"I heard from your mother when she was alive that you also inherited your father's genius." Near's face was expressionless when he spoke, but at the same time, looked like he was impressed.

Teresa rolled her eyes and set the drawing of her dad in her lap. "So I solve College level Calculus with ease, so what?" she asked sardonically. "I really don't care."

"If you wish, I could arrange it so you can stay here at this orphanage until you're fifteen," Linda suggested. The young teenager stared up at the woman, frowning.

"Why until I'm fifteen?" she asked skeptically.

"Children who grow up here at the Wammy's House are ready to leave at age fifteen," Near stated. "However, your father left when he was only fourteen."

Teresa crossed her arms and looked out the window at the other children playing happily in the yard. "Thanks for the offer, but I already got a legal guardian taking care of me."

"Yes, FBI agent Scott Russell, I am aware of that." Teresa's eyes widened and she snapped her head back to look at the white-haired man and the orphanage caretaker.

"How the hell did you know?" she asked, completely baffled.

"How I know is of no concern, but if you stay here, you will be able to learn among other children who share your same level of intelligence." Near watched her, studying her expressions; she was a lot like her father in the way that she would let her emotions show in every inch of her face. She ran on feeling, not on logic.

Teresa was at a loss as to what she should do. What would Scott think if she chose to stay at the Wammy's House, what would her dead mother think? She really did not know but after a while, she finally decided on a plan of action. "I think I should talk it over with Scott first," she suggested.

"No need, I have already spoken with him." Near grabbed a small action figure of Optimus Prime off the floor and began playing with it. Linda and Teresa stared at him oddly before he spoke again. "He has agreed to let you stay here for the next two years and will be waiting to take you back when you are finished." Teresa gapped at the man. Did he just say what she thought he said? So it was okay for her to stay there after all. That little bit of information was enough to make her make a decision.

She nodded and gave her answer. "Very well, but I still want to talk to Scott to give him the head's up." Linda and Near both nodded and gestured to the phone that sat on the blonde's desk. Getting out of her chair, Teresa walked across the room and dialed the lengthy phone number that would take her back to San Diego, California. She waited for the man to pick up, and after several rings, a groggy voice answered the phone.

"Nyuh? 'Ello?"

"I'm sorry, Scott, did I wake you?" She could tell the man had just crawled out of bed to answer the phone.

"Oh, no Teresa," he said, suddenly sounding awake. He must have just realized who had called him. "Did ya find the guy ya were lookin' for?" The teen rolled her eyes. Of course he knew that she found him.

"Yeah, I did." She was not in the mood for mind games at the moment. "Listen, I've made my decision, I'm going to transfer to Wammy's." She heard a sigh on the other line.

"I thought ya would. I've already mailed all yar belongings over there." Of course, why would he not? If he knew Teresa Hughes, the opportunity to learn somewhere other than a college that fit her intelligence level was just too good to pass up.

"Okay, thank you, Scott. See you in two years." She hung up the phone and turned to Near and Linda. "He's already sent my stuff here," she growled. They both nodded and Linda took her out of her office to show her to her knew room.

--

Teresa wandered the halls of the orphanage looking for something to distract her bored mind. All the other kids were outside playing, but she wanted to first get to know the inside of the building before she went outside and had fun. As she passed the infirmary, or nurse's office, she remembered the day when her mother died. She had been only ten-years-old at the time and was not ready to lose her mom. Scott had been outside in the hall talking with the doctor while she stood by her mother's bed as she lay dying.

_"I'm sorry, Mr. Russell," the doctor said drearily. "She's not going to make it. We tried out best." _

_Scott Russell turned away from staring through the window of his friend's hospital room. Veronica had had a heart attack during dinner and he had been the first and only person the hospital had contacted. "How much longer does she have?" he asked in his all-too-familiar Alabama accent. _

_The doctor looked at his clip board and shook his head. "A few minutes at most," he replied. "Her heart was incredibly weak so it was only a matter of time before she contracted heart disease. She must have had it for years and never told anyone. The only thing I can think of that kept her alive for this long was her daughter." Scott turned and looked back into the room where Veronica was laying on her death bed. "Do you know where we can contact Teresa's father?" _

_The southerner shook his head. "No, I'm sorry," he began. "He…" Scott paused. "He died before she was born." _

_The doctor nodded and left after saying, "I see; I'll leave you alone then."_

_Inside the hospital room, a ten-year-old Teresa Hughes stood by her mother's bed, holding the blankets in a death grip and crying. "Mommy, you're not going to leave are you?" The red-head laid a weak and trembling hand on the top of her daughter's head._

_"I'm sorry, Teresa," she rasped. "You'll have…have to live with…with Scott from now on." Her voice shook just like her limbs. _

_"Mommy, no!" Little Teresa tugged on her mother's blankets. _

_"Listen, Teresa," Veronica let go of her daughter and grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. "I want you…you to know about your father." She slowly began to scribble something down on the paper. The little girl stared wide-eyed at the paper while her mother wrote. "His name was Mihael Keehl, but we all just called him Mello." She handed the paper to the little blonde next to her. "Go to Winchester, England. There…there is an orphanage called the Wammy's House there. When you get there, ask…ask for a man named...a man named Near. He'll be able to tell you every…everything." Teresa read what was on the paper; an address and a few names. That was it. _

_"Why don't you tell me now, mom?" she asked, a small bit of hope told her that her mother was not going to die. Unfortunately, just when Teresa made her suggestion, the heart monitor next to the hospital bed flat lined and a single solid beep sounded from the box. Veronica dropped her arm from her daughter's head and her head slumped to the side, her eyes closed. Teresa cried for her mother to come back it was not use. At 9:17 pm on January twenty-third in San Diego, California, Veronica Hughes died of heart failure._

Teresa had finished checking out the dining hall for the children and decided to finally head outside. Inside was boring. Her mind wandered again, this time to when she had finally gathered up the courage to find out who her father really was.

_"Scott, I'm going to England!" a just-turned-thirteen-year-old Teresa called out through the southern California urban home. She stood up off the couch and marched up the stairs to find her legal guardian. She saw him walk out of his bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist and his hair sopping wet. He had apparently just gotten out of the shower. _

_"What on earth for?" he asked. _

_"My mom said that a man named Near lives in Winchester and he could tell me about my father." She watched as Scott Russell put his boxers on under his towel and dried his short brown hair._

_"Well, I could just tell you that," he said as he pulled on a pair of pants and a T-shirt._

_She shook her head. "No, I think mom wanted me to have Near tell me." He looked at her skeptically. "I inherited a pretty good amount of money from mom so I'm going whether you want me to or not!" He chuckled a bit and she raised an eyebrow at him. She certainly was turning into a defiant teenager. _

_"You're just like you father," he said. "Stubborn as hell." _

After that, the conversation changed and when Teresa mentioned that when she turned fourteen, she wanted to go to the DMV and sign up to take the Motorcycle class to get her license, Scott tensed up. She had taken an interest in motorcycles and Scott's face contorted with distain when he heard her say that. He hated motorcycles, but it was Mello's daughter, what was he supposed to do? Finally, after a brief argument, he had agreed to let her take the test.

Teresa stepped out the back door of Wammy's and into the bright sunlight. A bunch of children around her age or younger were running around in the yard, playing soccer, tag, or other such fun games. Seeing the group of boys who were playing soccer, she ran over to them and tapped one on the shoulder. A boy around the age of thirteen or fourteen with red hair and green eyes turned around and stared at her.

"What?" he asked.

"She smiled a sweet smile, one that was rarely seen on her. "Can I play to?"

He was silent for a few seconds, contemplating whether he should let her play or not. "Sure, why not?" She thanked him and tied her hair back in a pony tail. She felt like the boy was watching her so she turned to face him; he was. She gave him a look that said, "What do you want?" and turned back to watching two boys stand in front of the group and pick team members. "You don't look familiar," he began. "Are you new here?"

She nodded. "Yep, just arrived." A name was called and a boy to her left with short black hair walked forward and took his place with his team.

"What's your name?" the red-headed boy next to her asked.

She looked at him. "Teresa…" She paused. She suddenly had the urge to introduce herself not as a Hughes, but as a Keehl. She was her father's daughter after all. "Keehl," she finished. "I'm Teresa Keehl."

The boy looked at her funny and then said, "You know, the kids at this orphanage always go by aliases. You should find one for yourself." That said, he turned back to face the other boys and wait for his name to get called. Teresa stared at him. Aliases? Now that she thought about it, her father had an alias and he came from this orphanage. If he had one then it was alright for her to have one. She thought about it for a bit, trying to find the perfect name and after a while, she remembered a name she had read in a book called "Demon Drums". It had been her favorite name from that point on and she always harbored a secret desire to be referred to by that name. Making up her mind she told the boy her knew name.

"Tarawe," she said. He stared her, confused. "My name is now Tarawe. What's yours?"

"Ronin!" one of the boys picking teams called out. The red-headed boy smiled and turned to Tarawe.

"That is my name." He walked to his new team and the young blonde stood and waited for her to get called. Of course, she was the last one to be picked because no one knew her and she just happened to be on the same team as Ronin.

"It's nice to meet you, Ronin," she said.

He smirked. "Nice to meet you, too, Tarawe." The kids then ran off and took their positions on the field. The thirteen-year-old smiled to herself as she took the right wing of the field. She has just made her first friend at her new home.

"_And if God created love, did he make it for everyone?" –When Heaven's Not Far Away by Cold_

**A/N: Yes! It's finally finished!! This thing was a pain in the ASS to stick with! I think I'll be writing a few oneshots for a while now. These long stories pretty much consume my life when I'm working on them. **

**For those who guessed correctly (But, I noticed, did not review) you all get virtual COOKIES!! YUMMMMMM... For those of you guessed wrong, ha ha...too bad for you!! Hey, Spinningvortex!! You were half right when you said there would be a mini-Mello. Tarawe is kind of like a mini-Mello. Her personality is pretty much the same as his, she has blonde hair and blue eyes, likes motorcycles and she looks angry all the time! The only thing that is different is the fact that she is a health nut like her mother was. Sorry that wasn't mentioned in the chapter. --'**

**OH MY GOD!! I actually wrote a tragedy!! I can't believe it!!**

**Reviews are much appreciated!! Review and you won't get murdered and have your body dumped in the Rio Grande!! If you're not found by the Texans, then you will get washed out into the Gulf of Mexico and probably found by Mexicans!!**


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